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Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar turns 68 today

Sunil Gavaskar at a BCCI function with Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and legendary actor Amitabh Bachchan (AFP file)

Dubai - If cricket were a film,Sunil Gavaskar is Sholay, Sehwag twitted

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By KT Sport

Published: Mon 10 Jul 2017, 5:03 PM

Last updated: Mon 17 Jul 2017, 4:22 PM

Legendary Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar is celebrating his 68th birthday today.
Gavaskar, who made his Test debut in 1971 in West Indies, went on to become the first player to score 10,000 runs in the traditional format of the game.

Hailed as one of the greatest opening batsmen of all time, Gavaskar was the pillar of Indian cricket in the 1970s and 1980s. 
It was his rock solid batting and Kapil Dev's swing bowling that made India a competitive team those days.
On Monday, Virender Sehwag took to Twitter to wish the Indian legend on his birthday.
"What Gavaskar did without helmet,its difficult for ppl these days to do with all equipments.If cricket were a film,Sunil Gavaskar is Sholay," Sehwag twitted. 
In another tweet, Sehwag posted his selfie with Gavaskar and wrote: "Happy Birthday to one of the best and most daring batsman ever, Sunil Gavaskar Sir. Watching film Maalamaal to see you in a different avatar".
Thirteen of Gavaskar's 34 Test centuries came against the fearsome West Indies fast bowlers in the 1970s and 1980s.
Gavaskar's heroics against the West Indies impressed none other than Gary Sobers, arguably the greatest cricketer of all time. 
Sobers even called Gavaskar the best batsman in history. 
"Gavaskar rated the greatest because of the bowling attacks that he came up against," Sobers said at a function in Mumbai few years ago.
"At that time West Indies had a fast bowling attack that was unplayable; they had bowlers who used to bowl out teams in three days. Gavaskar played against those bowlers and he made a lot of runs. People always make a lot of runs in their own country, under their own conditions, but if you look at Gavaskar's record, he made a lot of runs away from India; he made a lot of runs in England, a lot in the West Indies and Australia.
"He certainly came up as an opening batsman against the best of attacks like (Michael) Holding, (Joel) Garner, (Colin) Croft; you call them and he played against them," Sobers said.
Even Pakistan great Javed Miandad was a big fan of Gavaskar.
"I admired lot of players but I loved watching Viv (Richards) and Gavaskar. They are my favorite players," Miandad once said.

The iconic Imran Khan was also a big admirer of Gavaskar. 
"Sachin (Tendulkar) never played an innings like Gavaskar did," Imran told Indian news channel Aajtak when asked to compare Sachin with Gavaskar.  "Look, Gavaskar faced a West Indies attack that had four world class fast bowlers. His record does not tell his actual contribution. I always felt sorry for him when he, alone, used to face a range of fast bowlers when there were none in his own country before Kapil Dev arrived on the scene," Imran added.
 

KT Sport

Published: Mon 10 Jul 2017, 5:03 PM

Last updated: Mon 17 Jul 2017, 4:22 PM

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