espnstar.com looks back at some of the greatest cricketers of our times and their numbers. Sunil Gavaskar is the first on the list.

By Rajesh Kumar

As regards Indian cricket, Sunil Gavaskar was the bridge between the old and modern eras, embossing his name in the annals of the game when he hit four centuries in his first four Tests against West Indies in the Caribbean in 1970-71, including 124 and 220 in the fifth and final Test at Port of Spain.
 
Gavaskar's success in his debut series was quite astonishing and thanks to his outstanding performance, India won their first ever series against the West Indies.
 
Apart from his century and a double century in the aforesaid Port of Spain Test, Gavaskar recorded 111 and 137 against Pakistan in the Karachi Test in 1978-79 besides 107 and an unbeaten 182 against West Indies at Kolkata in 1978-79 to become the first batsman in Test annals to register a century in each innings of a Test match on three occasions - a world record he now shares with Ricky Ponting.
 
Gavaskar dominated Test cricket for sixteen years, not merely on account of the runs he accumulated, but the way he plundered them.  He was the first to achieve the distinction of reaching 10,000 runs in Tests, achieving the feat in his 124th Test and 212th innings against Pakistan at Ahmedabad in March 1987 and his aggregate of 10,122 runs (ave.51.12), including 34 centuries in 125 Tests, was 3205 runs more than Allan Border (6917) during the time he played.   Both his run-aggregate and centuries remained records at the time of his retirement.
 
Gavaskar was one of the greatest opening batsmen that the game has known. His run-aggregate of 774 (ave.154.80), including four centuries and three fifties, in eight innings in four Tests, is still a world record - a feat unlikely to be surpassed.
 
Gavaskar holds a record for the highest run-aggregate as well as number of centuries against the West Indies - 2749 at an average of 65.45, including 13 centuries, in 27 Tests.  His feat of three double centuries (with a career-best 236 not out at Chennai in December 1983) is also a record for most double hundreds against the West Indies.  His only other double hundred is an outstanding knock of 221 on the last day of the 1979 Oval Test against England, earning a draw for his team but failing to save the series.  Thanks to his flawless knock, he deservingly got the Man of the Match award.
 
In 1976, he became the first Indian cricketer to amass 1,000 runs in a calendar year.  The said feat was accomplished by him four times in his career - 1,024 at an average of 53.89 in eleven Tests in 1976; 1099 (ave.91.58) in eight Tests in 1978; 1407 (ave.54.11) in 17 Tests in 1979 and 1310 (ave.46.78) in 18 Tests in 1983.
 
In the 1982-83 Faisalabad Test against Pakistan, Gavaskar played an excellent knock of 127 not out in India's second innings total of 286, becoming the first Indian to carry his bat in a Test match.

As captain, Gavaskar managed to win just nine Tests, losing eight and drawing the remaining 30 out of 47, the winning % being 19.14.  He is one of the two Indian captains to have recorded a batting average of 50-plus - 3449 at an average of 50.72, including eleven hundreds and 14 fifties.  Apart from Gavaskar, only Sachin Tendulkar has averaged 50-plus (51.35) as captain.

In One-day Internationals, he became the first to amass 3000 runs for India, accomplishing the feat during his first and only century (103 not out off 88 balls against New Zealand at Nagpur on October 31, 1987 in the World Cup) - 3092 at an average of 35.13, including one hundred and 27 fifties in 108 matches.
 
The only batsman dismissed by him in both Tests  (Faisalabad in 1978-79) and ODIs (Sialkot on October 13, 1978) is Pakistan's Zaheer Abbas.

As in Tests, Gavaskar's average in first-class cricket was 51 - 25,834 runs (ave.51.46), including 81 hundreds and 105 fifties, in 348 matches.