The unwavering concentration which Sunil Gavaskar was known for, hadn't relent him even at the twilight of his career, said Maninder Singh, who recalled the experience of playing alongside the great batsman on the 1986 tour of England. 

Gavaskar was going through a lean patch, but Maninder saw how confident the legend still was on his abilities, as he told skipper Kapil Dev not to worry about his form in the county matches leading upto the three-Test series. 

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"During the 1986 tour of England, he was not scoring runs in the tour games. But I remember he used to tell Kapil Dev ‘don’t worry, I will give you runs when the time comes'," Maninder told Hindustan Times. 

"I used to call him God of concentration. I’ll give you the reason for it. When I was in the team and used to see him go in the nets, nobody had to tell him about the last round. He used to be out of the nets, precisely after 10 minutes. Every time I used to look at my watch to track the time, it will always be 10 minutes from the time he went in to the time he came out and amazingly, he never had a watch on his wrist."

Gavaskar came into his own during a match against Somerset batting at No.5, instead of opening the innings. He went on to score another hundred in his first-class career, which he had foretold Maninder that he will. 

"What happened was the Indian press started writing him off when he wasn’t scoring in those warm-up games against the County sides."

"So I remember a game against Somerset, me and Kapil were coming from a fielding practice and India were batting. I was all drenched even in that winter in England. I and Kapil paaji had put in so much effort jogging, sprinting, and bowling that I was covered with sweat. 

"Gavaskar before going out to bat tapped me on the shoulder and said ‘son don’t go and change, sit in that balcony and watch me score a hundred.’ And he scored a hundred. His concentration level was so good that he knew ‘now the time has come, I have to concentrate’."

Despite that knock, Gavaskar didn't really get back to peak form during the Test series, which India historically won 2-0. He scored 175 runs in six innings with only one half-century. But best of batsmen have had such run at the end of their careers. 

"He was not a big trainer, he never trained too much. I think he used to train himself mentally. In international cricket, you have to be mentally strong that is what matters the most," Maninder said. 

A year later, Gavaskar reached the pinnacle of 10,000 Test runs, becoming the first in the history to do so in a match against Pakistan in Ahmedabad. 

The next Test in Bangalore turned out to be Gavaskar's last, in which he left everyone stunned with the excellence of his technique and powers of concentration, scoring 96 in the second innings on a rank turner where most other batsmen failed. 

He announced his retirement after the semi-final defeat against England at the 1987 Word Cup. 

"He was not only a cricketer but also a great human being," said Maninder on Gavaskar, who made 10,122 runs in 125 Tests at an average of 51.12, including 34 hundreds, which wasn't surpassed until 2005.