Legendary Sunil Gavaskar was all praise for Indian domestic cricket giant Wasim Jaffer as the classy right-hand batsman announced his retirement at the age of 42 this Saturday (March 8). 

Jaffer played 31 Tests and overall 260 first-class games for India, Mumbai and Vidarbha in his career, scoring more than 19,000 runs at an average of 50.67, with 57 hundreds and 91 half-centuries. 

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"He was one of the finest players Indian cricket has seen," Gavaskar, another Mumbai great, told TOI. "He was a real team man, selfless to the core. It's good to know that he will still be available for Indian cricket off the field, for experience like him is almost impossible to find."

"He was one of the finest opening batsmen that Mumbai has produced. He had the typical Mumbai khadoos attitude, was hungry for runs all the time and was never satisfied with what he gets. He always wanted more. I wish him good luck in his retired life."

Jaffer retires with more runs, caps, centuries and catches than anyone else in the history of Ranji Trophy, the country's premier domestic first-class tournament. He was part of the winning campaigns for as many as ten times with Mumbai and Vidarbha. 

Jaffer holds the record of being the only batsman to have scored 1000 runs in a Ranji season twice, in 2008-09 and 2018-19.

The man also excelled playing the Duleep and the Irani Trophy games. 

"Welcome to the band. You truly were inspirational. You pushed boundaries. Domestic cricket will be poorer without U," tweeted fellow Indian domestic veteran Amol Muzumdar. "The mould was unique. As I always said across the dressing room, 'Jaffara' well batted...good wishes always!"

(Inputs from TOI)