Former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq has heaped praise on India's batting great Sunil Gavaskar, saying that the former Indian batsman feat of breaching the 10,000-run mark in the longest format of the game was unthinkable.
Talking about Gavaskar on his official YouTube channel, the former Pakistan batsman said that there have been many great batsmen in the past but none thought of reaching the five-figure mark.
“There were several great players in his era as well as before that. There were batsmen like Javed Miandad, Viv Richards, Garry Sobers, and Don Bradman but none of them thought to reach the figure. Even in today’s cricket when there is too much Test cricket, there are very few players who’ve achieved that feat,” said Inzamam.
“If you ask me, I’ll say Sunil’s 10,000 runs of that era are equal to today’s 15,000 to 16,000 runs. These can be more than that but not less in anyway."
Inzamam further said that the pitches didn't support the batsmen as much in the days of Gavaskar, as they do today, which adds value to his run-scoring abilities.
“If [as a batsman] your form is good you can even score 1000 to 1500 runs in a season. But when Sunil was batting, the situation was not like that. Today purely batting wickets are prepared so that you can continue scoring runs. The ICC also wants to see batsmen doing that so that spectators are entertained," said the former Pakistan skipper.
“But in the past wickets were not so easy to bat on, especially when you were playing outside the sub-continent."
Gavaskar scored 10,122 runs in 125 Test matches for India, slamming 34 hundreds and 45 half-centuries. He breached the 10,000-run mark in his final Test series, which took place in India against Pakistan. Since Gavaskar, 12 other batsmen have reached the five-figure mark in Test cricket.
Sachin Tendulkar currently holds the record for most number of runs in the longest format of the game (15,921 in 200 Tests). Among Indians, Rahul Dravid is the only other batsman to have scored more than 10,000 runs in Tests.
