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A near to flawless batting technique, unmatched patience when on the crease and an insane appetite for runs combined together made Sunil Manohar Gavaskar. Born in Mumbai in 1949, Gavaskar proved to be a batting prodigy in the first class circuit, leading to his international debut on the tour of the Caribbean in 1971. What most expected from the little man was a steady stream of runs. But what they got, was a non-stop cascade as he ended the series with 774 runs at a whooping average of 155. All of a sudden, Gavaskar was a subject of immense curiosity in the international cricket community. But following his unreal debut, the following couple of seasons were mediocre to say the least. Questions started to be raised if Gavaskar's feats in his debut series were a fluke. But larger-than-life as Gavaskar was, he proved his cynics wrong hitting a miraculous 101 on a broken Old Trafford pitch against the devastating quartet of Bob Willis, Chris Old, Mike Hendrik and John Snow. Restored to confidence with another storybook accomplishment, Gavaskar was once again the man cricket world admired and bowlers dreaded, displaying a wide array of strokes in all corners of the globe. As the saga continued, Gavaskar kept bringing landmark after landmark to his name, the most immortal ones among them being his 221 in the fourth innings chasing 438 against England at The Oval, overtaking Geoffrey Boycott as the highest run scorer in test history, beating Sir Don Bradman's 35 year old record of 29 test centuries and finally becoming the first cricketer to scale 10000 runs. And his farewell innings in 1987 became another heralded story as batting on a crumbling Bangalore wicket against arch rivals Pakistan, Gavaskar scored 96 in a heartbreaking loss, with the display of India's complete reliance on Gavaskar proven by the fact that the next highest contribution to Indian total was extras conceded by Pakistani bowlers, with 27.
Gavaskar bowed out of the scene with 10122 runs averaging 51, over 9500 of the tally coming as an opener. He had famously said "Others will definitely get there, but the one who gets it first is the one always remembered". True to his words, despite the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid having surpassed him by quite a distance, Sunil Gavaskar continues to be regarded, both domestically and internationally, as India's greatest batsman of all-time. After all, the one who sets the benchmark has his own aura, Right !!!!!
