5 Indian batsmen for whom Wankhede was a happy hunting ground
The Wankhede has probably given India it’s proudest sporting moment when MS Dhoni hit the winning six to lift the 2011 ODI World Cup. However, it has an equally illustrious Test history. It was the third international venue in Mumbai after the Gymkhana Ground and the Brabourne Stadium. The first match was played in 1975 by India against West Indies, which the visitors won.
The ground has seen many a batsman rise up from the ranks of domestic cricket to become legends and it comes as no surprise that quite a few batsmen who did well at Wankhede in international matches played for the Mumbai side in the Ranji Trophy. Here we take a look at batsmen with most runs at the Wankhede. Clive Lloyd has the most runs of all visiting batsmen – 355 at a staggering 177.5 in just 2 Tests.
Mind you, in terms of runs scored at a venue by one particular batsman, the Wankhede isn’t really up there with the rest of the world (Eden Gardens is the first of all venues in India, 37th, thanks to VVS Laxman scoring 1217 of his Test runs there!)
#1 Sunil Gavaskar – 1122 runs at 56.1
Gavaskar is the only batsman to have scored more than a thousand runs at the Wankhede. He did so in 11 matches and 20 innings, the most number of innings played at the Wankhede by any batsman. Gavaskar is also one of only three batsmen to have scored a double century (Clive Lloyd and Vinod Kambli are the other two).
His highest score of 205 came during an epic 397-minute stay against West Indian bowlers, facing 342 balls, when India scored 424 batting first, the second highest score being 52. Gavaskar scored another 73 runs in the second innings, taking his match tally to 278, the second-highest tally by an Indian captain, just behind his own tally of 289 runs also against the West Indies at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata.
Gavaskar had quite a few productive outings at the Wankhede, scoring 5 centuries and 3 half-centuries.