Widely regarded as one of the greatest Test batters of all time, former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar on Thursday (December 1) said he did not look at the scoreboard while batting and never set targets at the crease.

During his illustrious career, Gavaskar amassed 10,122 Test runs and 3,092 ODI runs. He hit 35 centuries in international cricket, with 34 of them coming in the longest format.

“I didn’t look at the scoreboard when I was batting, because every batsman has his own way of setting targets,” Gavaskar said while speaking at the ‘Spotlight Session’ during INFOCOM 2022, an event organized by the ABP Group.

“Small targets are what the coaches tell you first, getting to 10, 20 and 30, which is a good way,” he added.

According to Gavaskar’s philosophy, one should play each ball on its merit without looking at the scoreboard.

“The way I was looking at is that if my target was to get to 30, if I got to anywhere around 24-25, I would be very anxious then to try and get to 30. I would then play at a ball outside off stump or something, nick it and be out for say 26, trying to hit the boundary that would have got me to 30,” he said.

Speaking on the same line, Gavaskar further said he didn’t realize when he had equalled Sir Don Bradman’s 29th Test hundred since he did not have the habit of looking at the scoreboard.

“I didn’t have any idea till (Dilip) Vengsarkar came and told me about the achievement,” he stated.

The batting legend said his aim was to hit a century each time he went out to bat.

“The prize that I put on my wicket was invariably a 100. I always wanted a century; that’s the minimum I wanted to get… Obviously that was impossible, even Sir Don Bradman couldn’t do it in every inning. So, my whole idea was to bat sessions; first session to lunch, then to tea and then to the close of play,” Gavaskar said.

(With PTI inputs)