Sachin Tendulkar pays tribute to his idol Sunil Gavaskar with a heartwarming message
Sachin Tendulkar paid tribute to Sunil Gavaskar in his latest Twitter post and called the latter his idol.
On this day in 1971, Gavaskar made his Test debut against the West Indies. March 6, 2021 thus marks the 50th anniversary of his Test debut.
Sachin Tendulkar shared a heartwarming message on Twitter to celebrate the occasion and added that he tried to emulate Sunil Gavaskar as a young boy.
"50 years ago today, he took the Cricketing World by storm. He scored 774 runs in his debut series, and each one of us had a hero to look up to. India won the series in the West Indies and then in England, and all of a sudden, the sport in India had a new meaning. As a young boy, I knew I had someone to look up to and try and be like him. That has never changed," Sachin Tendulkar tweeted.
Sunil Gavaskar was the first player in history to cross the 10000-run mark in Test cricket. In 125 Tests, the original Little Master amassed 10,122 runs at an average of 51.12.
Sunil Gavaskar's record-breaking debut against the West Indies
Playing one's first international game can be a nerve-wracking situation for any youngster. It is all the more challenging when one is playing away from home and probably against that era's best team.
Making his debut in the 1971 Test series against the West Indies, Sunil Gavaskar piled on a monstrous 774 runs at an average of 154.80. India went on to win the five-match Test series by a margin of 1-0.
Sunil Gavaskar played four matches in that series, scoring four hundreds and three fifties in eight innings, including a second-innings double ton in the final game.
Gavaskar's debut performance has stood the test of time as no other player in the sport's history has scored more runs in a debut Test series.