61 Facts About Sunil Gavaskar

Sunil Gavaskar was widely admired for his technique against fast bowling, with a particularly high average of 65.45 against the West Indies, who possessed a four-pronged fast bowling attack, widely regarded as the most vicious in Test history.

Sunil Gavaskar is a recipient of the Indian sports honour of the Arjuna Award and the civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan.

Sunil Gavaskar was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2009.

Sunil Gavaskar scored 246*, 222 and 85 in school cricket in his final year of secondary education before striking a century against the touring London schoolboys.

Sunil Gavaskar followed this with his first century, 116 and 64* in the third Test in Georgetown, Guyana, and 1 and 117* in the Fourth Test in Bridgetown, Barbados.

Sunil Gavaskar returned to Trinidad for the fifth Test and scored 124 and 220 to help India to its first ever series victory over the West Indies, and the only one until 2006.

Sunil Gavaskar became the first Indian to make four centuries in one Test series, the second Indian after Vijay Hazare to score two centuries in the same Test, and the third after Hazare and Polly Umrigar to score centuries in three consecutive innings.

Sunil Gavaskar was the first Indian to aggregate more than 700 runs in a series and until date remains the only Indian to do so.

Sunil Gavaskar was unable to maintain his performance, making only two half-centuries.

Sunil Gavaskar was involved in controversy when taking a quick single from the bowling of John Snow.

Snow was charged with deliberately barging into Sunil Gavaskar and was suspended.

Sunil Gavaskar scored some runs in the final two Tests which India drew to complete consecutive series wins over England.

Sunil Gavaskar scored 108 runs at 27, with an 86 bowled by Lance Gibbs at Bombay's Wankhede Stadium hosting the first test on this ground, the closest the Indian public got to see a century.

Sunil Gavaskar led India in a Test for the first time in January 1976 against New Zealand during the First Test in Auckland when regular captain Bishen Singh Bedi was suffering from a leg injury.

Sunil Gavaskar ended the series with 266 runs at 66.33.

Sunil Gavaskar was not to score a century on home soil until November 1976.

Sunil Gavaskar scored another half-century in the Second Test to end the series with 259 at 43.16.

Sunil Gavaskar saved his best for the Third Test in Karachi, scoring 111 and 137 in the Third, but was unable to prevent a defeat and series loss.

Sunil Gavaskar was captain of the Indian team on several occasions in the late 1970s and early 1980s, although his record is less than impressive.

Sunil Gavaskar captained India to nine victories and eight losses, but most of the games were drawn, 30.

Sunil Gavaskar's first series in charge was a West Indian visit to India for a six Test series.

Sunil Gavaskar added a further 73 in the second innings of a high scoring draw.

Sunil Gavaskar managed only 4 and 1 in the Fourth Test in Madras as India forced the only win of the series.

Sunil Gavaskar posted a fourth century for the series, scoring 120 in the Fifth Test at Delhi, becoming the first Indian to pass 4000 Test runs.

The official reason given was that Srinivas Venkataraghavan was preferred due to his superior experience on English soil, but most observers believed that Sunil Gavaskar was punished because he was believed to be considering defecting to World Series Cricket.

Sunil Gavaskar started consistently, scoring four half-centuries in five innings of the first three Tests.

An Ian Botham led fightback saw Sunil Gavaskar removed, with India still needing 49 runs from 46 balls.

Sunil Gavaskar made 115 in the Fourth Test in Delhi, where India were unable to convert a 212-run first innings lead, resulting in a draw.

Sunil Gavaskar managed only 118 runs at 19.66 in the three Tests against Australia, but his impact in Australia was for a controversial incident.

At the Melbourne Cricket Ground, when Sunil Gavaskar was given out by the Australian umpire Rex Whitehead, he ordered his fellow opener Chetan Chauhan off the field.

Sunil Gavaskar finished the Oceania tour with 244 runs at 22.18, with only two half-centuries, making little impact.

Sunil Gavaskar made 172 in the Second Test at Bangalore and reached a half-century on three further occasions to compile 500 runs at 62.5.

Sunil Gavaskar made 74 runs at 24.66 but was unable to bat in the Third Test.

Sunil Gavaskar went on to the West Indies for a five Test tour purely as a batsman, but could not reproduce the form that he had shown in the Caribbean in 1971 and 1976.

Sunil Gavaskar scored an unbeaten 103 in the First Test in Bangalore, and made two further half centuries to total 264 runs at 66.

Sunil Gavaskar had his bat knocked out of his hand by a hostile delivery from Malcolm Marshall before being dismissed.

Sunil Gavaskar then went on to score 121, his 29th Test century in 94 balls in his 95th test match, equalling Don Bradman's world record.

Sunil Gavaskar passed 8,000 Test runs in the innings, and was personally honoured by Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India at the ground.

The crowd singled out Sunil Gavaskar, who had made a golden duck and 20.

Sunil Gavaskar scored a total of 505 runs at an average of 50.50 for the series.

The local police chief reportedly asked Sunil Gavaskar to declare to placate the angry crowd.

When Sunil Gavaskar led his team onto the field, he was pelted with fruit.

Sunil Gavaskar vowed never to play at Eden Gardens again, and duly withdrew from the team for India's next fixture at the Bengali capital two years later, ending his record of 106 consecutive Tests.

Sunil Gavaskar scored an unbeaten 166 in the First Test in Adelaide and 172 in the Third Test in Sydney, ending the series with 352 runs at 117.33.

Against an Australian team, Sunil Gavaskar made 90 in the second innings of the First Test in Madras, giving India a chance to reach the target of 348, which ended in a tie.

Sunil Gavaskar scored 103 in the Third Test to end the series with 205 runs at 51.66.

Sunil Gavaskar scored 91 in the drawn First Test in Madras before withdrawing from the Second Test in Calcutta as he had promised.

Sunil Gavaskar rounded out his international career with the 1987 Cricket World Cup.

Sunil Gavaskar scored 300 runs at an average of 50 at the tournament.

Sunil Gavaskar was a fine slip fielder and his safe catching in the slips helped him become the first Indian to take over a hundred catches in Test matches.

Early in his Test career, when India rarely used pace bowlers, Sunil Gavaskar opened the bowling for a short spell on occasions if only one pace bowler was playing, before a three-pronged spin attack took over.

Sunil Gavaskar's focus of technical correctness over flair meant that his style of play was usually less suited to the shorter form of the game, at which he had less success.

Sunil Gavaskar almost went through his career without scoring a one-day century.

Sunil Gavaskar managed his first in the 1987 World Cup, when he hit 103 not out in 88 balls against New Zealand in his penultimate ODI innings at Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground, Nagpur.

Sunil Gavaskar served as an advisor to the India national cricket team during the home series against Australia in 2004.

Sunil Gavaskar was the Chairman of the ICC cricket committee until the time he was forced to choose between commenting and being on the committee.

Sunil Gavaskar left the committee to continue his career as a broadcaster.

Sunil Gavaskar tried his hand at acting on the silver screen.

Sunil Gavaskar played the lead role in the Marathi movie "Savli Premachi".

Sunil Gavaskar has sung a Marathi song "Ya Duniyemadhye Thambayaala Vel Konala" which was written by noted Marathi lyricist Shantaram Nandgaonkar.

Sunil Gavaskar wrote four books on cricket, including his own autobiography.