Born on 10th July 1949 in Mumbai, legendary India batsman Sunil Gavaskar celebrates his 70th birthday today.
The great man made his international debut in 1971 against West Indies before going on to play 125 Tests for the country and becoming the first batsman to reach the 10,000-run milestone in the game's traditional format.
Gavaskar's greatness can be gauged by the fact that he still aggregates highest runs (2749) against that feared West Indies pace attack of the 70s and 80's in Test cricket.
He scored 9,607 runs as an opener, which is still the second-highest in Test cricket behind Alastair Cook (11845).
Gavaskar, the 1983 World Cup-winner, also went on to prove his mettle in ODIs. He made 3,092 at a highly respectable average of 35.1 in his times, including an 88-ball ton versus New Zealand to put all the talks surrounding his limited-overs batting to rest.
There is a reason why some of the country's best, including the greatest Sachin Tendulkar, hail Gavaskar as one of their inspirations. And unsurprisingly, a lot of them took to Twitter and wished "sunny bhai!!" well on the occasion.
