Harsh Thakor
First Class Star
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2012
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In pure test cricket arguably Sunil Gavaskar was the greatest of all batsmen.True he did not have Bradman's or Tendulkar's staggering statistics,the explosive power of Greenidge or Sehwag ,the elegance of Zaheer Abbas or Greg Chappell or the inflammable talent of Viv Richards or Lara.However no great batsmen set records facing such lethal pace bowling in an era where there was virtually no protective headgear.In term s of concentration arguably Gavaskar did not have an equal while if not better technically he was atleast on par with Barry Richards and Len Hutton.Gavaskar was as much at home on the fast ,bouncy Australian wickets,the seaming English tracks and turning sub-continent wickets.Unlike Viv Richards and Greg Chappell or later Sachin and Lara Gavaskar had to open the batting which is more challenging.Unlike Tendulkar and Lara Gavaskar hardly had protective headgear.He also had the disadvantage of playing for a relatively weaker team than stalwarts like Chappell brothers,Zaheer Abbas and Viv Richards.Gavasakar has a better 4th innings record than Tendulkar and has 3 of his innings in the Wisden best 100 unlike Sachin which has none.In the 1970's Gavaskar was 2nd to only Bradman statistically in terms of reaching milestone of 5000 and 6000 runs.In the 1970';s he was the most prolific test batsmen scoring 5974 runs at 55.91.No batsmen ever had a higher agregate or average in a series in a debut as Sunil who amassed 774 runs at an average of 154.80.In 4th innings he has performed comparatively better than Lara and Tendulkar .
In the view of some experts Gavaskar's career is hyped because he ammased a lot of runs against the weaker or less formidable West Indies pace attacks of 1970-71 and 1978-79 and Australian attack of 1977-78 without greats like Holding,Roberts ,Marshall or Lillee.Still he faced the formidable Jeff Thomson in 1977-78 scoring 3 centuries and averaged 89.4 in Pakistan in 1978-79 facing Imran and Sarafraz.In 1979 in England he scored 221 at the Oval which is regraded by many as amongst the top 5 innings by any overseas batsmen in England and the best by an opening batsmen.On that tour facing greats like Botham and Willis he averaged 77.42 aggregating 542 runs displaying his great ability to adapt to the seaming English conditions and the moving ball.Earlier in 1975-76 he scored centuries in successive tests at Trinidad facing the like sof Holding and Roberts when scoring an unbeaten 155 in the 2nd test..When past his peak he scored an unbeaten 127 at Faisalabad in 1982-83 facing Imran at his fastest.He comparitively lost his performance in 198384 in 5 tests in West Inside and 6 tests in India averaging around 43 overall with 3 centuries and 2 fifties.However he was still a marvel when compiling 129 at Delhi,90 at Ahmedabad and 236 n.o at Madras .He scored his 129 and 90 at a breathtaking scoring rate.He scored 2 big centuries in Australia in 1985-86 against a relatively weaker bowl in attack averaging close to 100 but the feature of his batting in the mid 1980's was his 96 on a broken wicket at Bangalore v Pakistan.
True Gavaskar was relatively slow scorer like when he scored 172 at Bangalore occupying 708 mins. which may go against him.However just visualize the pressure Gavaskar faced in his test carer almost carrying the entire weight of his team on his shoulders.Gavaskar mus take credit fot taking India home to famous wins like against Pakistan at Madras in 1979-80 when scoring 166,102 v West Indise at Port of Spain in a record 4th innings run chase and morally a match-winning 221 at the Oval in great 4th inings run chase even if India did not get home.Even if not facing the greatest bolwers wheh agregating 732 run sat 91.50 in India v West Indies Gavaskar faced the hostile Sylvester Clarke,arguably the quickest of the Carribean paceman.For sheer technical skill I find it hard to imagine any batsmen surpassing Gavaskar when scoring his epic 221 at the Oval.I cannot visualise even Bradman equalling Gavaskar's effort at Bangalore against Pakistan when scoring 96 on a broken track.
To me Gavaskar resembled a monk meditating when bating and executed his strokes with the precision of a surgeon.He was a better negotiator of the short bouncing ball than Tendulkar or Greg Chappell.Martin Crowe ranked Gavaskar even ahead of Viv Richards and Greg Chappell taking into consideration the bowling attacks he faced.Imran Khan rated him the best batsmen to dislodge and marginally ahead of Tendulkar.Sadly Bradman excluded him from his all-time test xi.In Richard Sydenham's collection of all time test xi's Gavaskar garners more votes in all-time test xi than any opening batsmen.
Gavaskar's competitors are Bradman,Hobbs,Tendulkar,Lara,Viv Richards,Len Hutton,Greame Pollock,Greg Chappell,Walter Hammond and Gary Sobers.Hobbs played in acompletely different era and although wickets were wet but bowling attacks were not so formidable.Bradman's figures place him on another pedestal but again asess the Don against bodyline bowling and the fact that he hardly played great spin bowling.The factor that goes against Gavaskar was that he does not have a high aggregate or average contributing in wins.
If I had a gun on my head in pure test cricket I may place Gavaskar just behind Bradman and Lara .In pure test cricket almost impossible to separate Tendulkar ,Sobers and Gavaskar but Gavaskar may just be nosed by margin of a whisker.
best test batsmen of all in tentative order of merit.(subject to alteration)
1.Bradman
2.Lara
3.Sobers
4.Tendulkar
5=Gavaskar/Hutton
7 Jack Hobbs
8.Viv Richards
9.Walter Hammond
10.Graeme Pollock
11.Greg Chappell.
12.Alan Border
In the view of some experts Gavaskar's career is hyped because he ammased a lot of runs against the weaker or less formidable West Indies pace attacks of 1970-71 and 1978-79 and Australian attack of 1977-78 without greats like Holding,Roberts ,Marshall or Lillee.Still he faced the formidable Jeff Thomson in 1977-78 scoring 3 centuries and averaged 89.4 in Pakistan in 1978-79 facing Imran and Sarafraz.In 1979 in England he scored 221 at the Oval which is regraded by many as amongst the top 5 innings by any overseas batsmen in England and the best by an opening batsmen.On that tour facing greats like Botham and Willis he averaged 77.42 aggregating 542 runs displaying his great ability to adapt to the seaming English conditions and the moving ball.Earlier in 1975-76 he scored centuries in successive tests at Trinidad facing the like sof Holding and Roberts when scoring an unbeaten 155 in the 2nd test..When past his peak he scored an unbeaten 127 at Faisalabad in 1982-83 facing Imran at his fastest.He comparitively lost his performance in 198384 in 5 tests in West Inside and 6 tests in India averaging around 43 overall with 3 centuries and 2 fifties.However he was still a marvel when compiling 129 at Delhi,90 at Ahmedabad and 236 n.o at Madras .He scored his 129 and 90 at a breathtaking scoring rate.He scored 2 big centuries in Australia in 1985-86 against a relatively weaker bowl in attack averaging close to 100 but the feature of his batting in the mid 1980's was his 96 on a broken wicket at Bangalore v Pakistan.
True Gavaskar was relatively slow scorer like when he scored 172 at Bangalore occupying 708 mins. which may go against him.However just visualize the pressure Gavaskar faced in his test carer almost carrying the entire weight of his team on his shoulders.Gavaskar mus take credit fot taking India home to famous wins like against Pakistan at Madras in 1979-80 when scoring 166,102 v West Indise at Port of Spain in a record 4th innings run chase and morally a match-winning 221 at the Oval in great 4th inings run chase even if India did not get home.Even if not facing the greatest bolwers wheh agregating 732 run sat 91.50 in India v West Indies Gavaskar faced the hostile Sylvester Clarke,arguably the quickest of the Carribean paceman.For sheer technical skill I find it hard to imagine any batsmen surpassing Gavaskar when scoring his epic 221 at the Oval.I cannot visualise even Bradman equalling Gavaskar's effort at Bangalore against Pakistan when scoring 96 on a broken track.
To me Gavaskar resembled a monk meditating when bating and executed his strokes with the precision of a surgeon.He was a better negotiator of the short bouncing ball than Tendulkar or Greg Chappell.Martin Crowe ranked Gavaskar even ahead of Viv Richards and Greg Chappell taking into consideration the bowling attacks he faced.Imran Khan rated him the best batsmen to dislodge and marginally ahead of Tendulkar.Sadly Bradman excluded him from his all-time test xi.In Richard Sydenham's collection of all time test xi's Gavaskar garners more votes in all-time test xi than any opening batsmen.
Gavaskar's competitors are Bradman,Hobbs,Tendulkar,Lara,Viv Richards,Len Hutton,Greame Pollock,Greg Chappell,Walter Hammond and Gary Sobers.Hobbs played in acompletely different era and although wickets were wet but bowling attacks were not so formidable.Bradman's figures place him on another pedestal but again asess the Don against bodyline bowling and the fact that he hardly played great spin bowling.The factor that goes against Gavaskar was that he does not have a high aggregate or average contributing in wins.
If I had a gun on my head in pure test cricket I may place Gavaskar just behind Bradman and Lara .In pure test cricket almost impossible to separate Tendulkar ,Sobers and Gavaskar but Gavaskar may just be nosed by margin of a whisker.
best test batsmen of all in tentative order of merit.(subject to alteration)
1.Bradman
2.Lara
3.Sobers
4.Tendulkar
5=Gavaskar/Hutton
7 Jack Hobbs
8.Viv Richards
9.Walter Hammond
10.Graeme Pollock
11.Greg Chappell.
12.Alan Border
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