An incident happened in the hospital with the great batsman Sunil Gavaskar in childhood, which could change his whole life and he might not even become a cricketer. In fact, Sunil Gavaskar has told in his autobiography ‘Sunny Days’ that ‘I would never have become a cricketer and this book would not have been written, if I had not had a sharp-eyed Narayan Masurkar in my life.’
Gavaskar said, ‘When I was born, he (whom I later called as nun-uncle) had come to see me in the hospital and he saw a birthmark on my ear.’ ‘The next day he again came to the hospital and the child he picked up in his lap did not find that mark on the ear of that child. After this, the children were checked in the entire hospital. After which I found him sleeping near the fisherman’s wife.
Gavaskar said, ‘The hospital nurse had made me sleep there by mistake. Gavaskar says that perhaps he had changed while bathing the children. If uncle had not paid attention that day, I might have been a fisherman today.
Sunil Gavaskar scored 10,122 runs (125 Tests) with 34 centuries in his Test career of 16 years (1971–1987). His batting average was 51.12. His record of 34 centuries was broken by Sachin Tendulkar in 2005. Gavaskar scored 3092 runs in 108 One Day Internationals at an average of 35.13. He scored only one century in ODIs, that too in the 107th match.
March 7, 1987 is a very special day for Sunil Gavaskar and cricket history. Because on this day the 10,000th run of Test cricket came out of his bat. He was the first cricketer to touch the 10,000-run mark in Tests. He achieved this feat in his 124th Test match against Pakistan.
Sunil Gavaskar was the first cricketer to score a century in both the innings of a Test match thrice. During his debut series in 1971, he scored 124 runs in the first innings of the Port of Spain Test against deadly West Indies bowlers and scored a double century (220) in the second innings. It was a rare feat of scoring a century in the first innings and a double century in the second innings.
