TeaIndia’s cricket tour of Pakistan in 1987 was one of the most publicized Test series between the two countries. The first four Test matches ended in draws, and by the time the team finished fifth at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, it was widely expected that this too would end in a draw. Pakistan batted first and the team was bundled out for 116 runs. Chinnaswamy’s wicket turned turner. Maninder Singh swings the ball as before and took 7 wickets for 27 runs. It took them just 19 overs to dismiss the Pakistani batting line-up. When India batted, two Pakistani spinners came into play – Iqbal Qasim and Tausif Ahmed. India also collapsed – all out for 145. In their second innings, Pakistan batted better with minor but significant contributions from captain Imran Khan, Ramiz Raja and keeper Salim Yusuf. India were now chasing 220, and one man had the job to give India a good start – Sunil Gavaskar.
That fifth Test match was a testament to the genius of Sunil ‘Sunny’ Gavaskar – one of the greatest openers of all time.
Lessons to bat on an invincible wicket
By the time Sunil started his second innings, the wicket at the Chinnaswamy Stadium was unplayable. Pakistani spinners Tauseef Ahmed and Iqbal Qasim were swinging the ball square. To make matters worse, there was also tremendous bounce in the wicket. A ball from Tauseef rose so high that Gavaskar had to release it as if it were a bouncer from a fast bowler. On another occasion, Gavaskar hit an impeccable on-drive for us spectators only to see a speck of dust on the wicket after he had played his stroke. Legendary Pakistani commentator Chishti Mujahid remarked that there is probably no other batsman in the world who can play that stroke better on an unfavorable wicket. By then every ball had become a potential wicket-taker, but not for Gavaskar.
Imran Khan had all his fielders as every third ball was taking the edge, or hitting the glove. Still, Sunil Gavaskar was covering the spinning ball as if the wicket was heaven for batting. The shrewd Iqbal Qasim was shocked when Gavaskar hit a straight drive to a ball that pitched outside the off-stump. Sunil waited for the ball to finish its full course and then played it late behind the bowler – it was a boundary. Imran Khan tried every trick to harass Gavaskar. The great Wasim Akram was brought back but the Indian batsmen remained unfazed. It was not that Sunny was not impressed by the difficult wicket. Eminent Hindi commentator Sushil Doshi remarked that the wicket was turning so much that even the great Gavaskar was mistaking his stroke. Yet he went as far as he could when English commentator Anupam Gulati concluded that Gavaskar had managed to put the entire Pakistan team under pressure.
By the time Gavaskar reached 75, India had lost half their team for 147 runs and Sunil had scored half of his team’s total. The master batsman had assessed the pitch so quickly and so accurately that he knew it would be useful to drive in front of the wicket rather than play his strokes late. Imran Khan did not have many runs to play. Gavaskar drove on an impossible wicket which forced Khan to remove slip and consolidate midfield. As the slip fell, Gavaskar repeatedly started laying Tausif at the hands of third man and collecting precious runs for India. Being able to play the middle shot on an unbeatable wicket requires a level of batting that only Gavaskar can have. By the time he reached the 90s, he was the only one standing in the midst of Pakistan’s first series win on Indian soil. Sunil reached 96 and as the Indian crowd waited with bated breath for his century, he found a delivery from Iqbal Qasim, which not only spun, but bounced unbelievably to pick up his glove – slipped The rest worked. Gavaskar is out.
His last Test innings was a lesson in how a wicket is batted at turning square and bounced inconsistently.
This was not the first time Sunil Gavaskar had fought alone to take his team closer to victory. In 1979, when India toured England, the fourth Test match was played at the Oval. England set a target of 438 runs to India in the fourth innings. Sunil Gavaskar played a brilliant innings of 221 runs and took his team close to an impossible victory by scoring a few runs. If only the lower middle order had shown more readiness, India would have chased 400-plus on English soil to win the Test match.
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Gavaskar faced star bowlers
Consider the quality of bowling that Gavaskar faced in his career.
Australia had Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thompson during his time. England had Ian Botham, Bob Willis and John Embure. New Zealand had Richard Hadlee. Pakistan had Imran Khan, Sarfaraz Nawaz, Abdul Qadir and a young Wasim Akram. Above all, West Indies had a pace attack that included some of the most feared fast bowlers in the history of the game. Gavaskar faced the agility of Malcolm Marshall, the skill of Andy Roberts, the accuracy of Joel Garner and the quick pace of Michael Holding. Sunil’s 13 centuries against the West Indies made him not only one of the greatest batsmen of his era but also one of the best to have played the game. We must not forget that Gavaskar scored all his runs as an opener when the fast bowlers were fresh and at their best. Sunil Gavaskar had never faced such fast bowling in domestic cricket.
But India had many worthy stalwarts in their bowling.
When Gavaskar played against Karnataka, he had to deal with EAS Prasanna and BS Chandrasekhar. Against Delhi, he faced one of the best left-arm slow bowlers in the form of Bishan Bedi, and playing against Tamil Nadu, Gavaskar was up against Srinivas Venkataraghavan. Against small Haryana, he had to find a way to score against the mighty Kapil Dev and the evergreen spin wizard Rajinder Goel. Perhaps no other batsman in the history of cricket has faced such a class of world class bowlers. Add to that the fact that Gavaskar didn’t have the advantage of Desmond Haynes as a Gordon Greenidge. For most of his career, Gavaskar fought a lone battle at the top to beat great bowlers.
In a Test match at Chepauk against the mighty West Indies in 1983, Gavaskar decided to give himself some relief and luxury by not opening the bat. Even when he came out to bat, the Indian scorecard read zero! This inspired the great Vivian Richards to say to Gavaskar, “No matter where you bat, the scorecard still reads zero.”
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players play as they wish
Gavaskar knew that apart from his fellow Mumbai batsman Dilip Vengsarkar and his great brother-in-law GR Vishwanath, he could not rely on the Indian lower middle order to consistently score big scores. This made him a cautious batsman. However, he could be a destructive batsman when he wanted to, as found by Malcolm Marshall and Michael Holding during the second Test of India’s 1983 tour of the West Indies at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in Delhi.
Gavaskar scored 121 runs off the ball of about one run with the help of two sixes and 15 fours. My late father, who had no interest in cricket, reluctantly agreed to take me to see this Test at the Kotla. I had assured him that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to see one of the most solid defensive batsmen ever to play the game. I had cautioned my father not to expect fireworks from Sunny, but to admire his defensive batting technique. That October morning, Gavaskar made a complete fool of me in front of my father. My father believed that I had no knowledge of cricket and had no idea about Gavaskar’s batting style. It was a lesson in cricket which I had learned very early in life. Great batsmen can play as they please. That is exactly what Gavaskar did in a crucial ODI World Cup match against New Zealand. Again it was the month of October when Sunil scored a century in 85 balls. India had to chase down 221 runs in 40 overs to avoid the trouble of playing the semi-finals in Pakistan. Gavaskar’s knock ensured that India stayed in their own home to play the semi-finals at home.
After this blazing innings from Sunil Gavaskar, I never discussed cricket with my father again. The word great is often misused. Certainly not in the case of Sunil Manohar Gavaskar. Most reliable batsman I have ever seen.
Kush Singh @singhkb is the founder of The Cricket Curry Tour Company. Thoughts are personal.