Sunil Gavaskar has revealed to former Pakistan cricketer Ramiz Raja that the toughest challenge he had to face in international cricket was ‘pace and swing’.
The legendary cricketer is regarded as one of the best openers in the world and set a benchmark for openers around the world. However, being a subcontinent batsman, he wasn’t in favor of facing fast bowlers.
In a chat with Raja, he told him that the three bowlers who made it tough for him were Imran Khan, Sarfaraz Nawaz and New Zealand’s Sir Richard Hadlee.
Gavaskar said, “In 1982-83 when India toured Pakistan and the way Imran Khan bowled and picked up 40 odd wickets in the series it was tough. Every spell Imran and Sarfaraz bowled was testing. In those days nobody had heard about or seen reverse swing. The new ball wasn’t a problem but the way the ball swung post-lunch was difficult to face.”
In the preceding year, Hadlee troubled the legend with pacy swinging deliveries in a three-match Test series in New Zealand.
“Facing Richard Hadlee’s pace and swing in those conditions was very testing. The toughest test I would say was facing Hadlee in the three tests in New Zealand in 1981,” he added.
Political tensions between neighboring countries India and Pakistan have ensured that there has been no bilateral series for quite a few years now and the situation is highly unlikely to get better for a few years to come. Gavaskar mentioned the same with an interesting comparison to Lahore’s hot weather.
“There are more chances of snowfall in Lahore than bilateral series between India and Pakistan. Both teams will keep on meeting in World Cups and ICC tournaments, but a series between them seems unlikely right now,” the 70-year-old said.
(With inputs from Hindustan Times)
