Sunil Gavaskar is widely regarded as one of the greatest opening batsmen of all time. The original little master Gavaskar stood firm against the best of fast bowlers at times when the entire batting line-up depended on him. Gavaskar was the first batsman to reach the summit and score 10,000 runs in Test cricket. His record of 34 centuries also stood for many years until eventually, Sachin Tendulkar went past it.
Former India player Kiran More recently told an interesting story regarding Gavaskar. He said that while practising in the nets the legendary batsman would often struggle. More pointed out that Gavaskar was one of the worst players he saw batting in the nets.
Sunil Gavaskar was the worst batsman in nets – Kiran More
He further added that once the real match began he looked a completely different batsman who pilled on runs against any opposition.
“He was one of the worst players I’ve ever seen in the nets. He used to never like practising in the nets. When you see him practise in the nets and he’s going to play in a Test match tomorrow, and when he goes and bats in a Test match it’s 99.9 per cent different. When you see him bat in the nets it’s like ‘How is he going to score runs?’ And then when you see him next day morning it’s like ‘Wow’,” More said on The Greatest Rivalry podcast.
According to Kiran More, the reason why Sunil Gavaskar was so successful was because of his enormous concentration. Once the legendary batsman got into a zone he used to never look back and break several batting records. Gavaskar used to block everything out once he was batting in the middle and he rarely lost his concentration.
“The best God-given gift given to Sunil Gavaskar is his concentration. The level of concentration he had was unbelievable. Once he would get into his zone, nobody could get close to him or he would not listen to you. If you’re talking next to him or dancing next to him, he’ll be in his zone and he’ll be focussing on his cricket,” said More.