When Sunil Gavaskar sat muttering in Kanpur dressing room corner after run out: ‘I am a poor batsman … Please run singles for me’

The Kanpur stadium, 1 of India’s oldest Test venues, is wide known for its eventful enactment of off-field moments and cricketing achievements. The archetypal turf transportation successful India was laid successful Kanpur earlier India bushed Australia for the archetypal clip successful Test cricket successful 1959. 57 years later, India played their 500th Test successful Kanpur, signaling a 197-run triumph implicit New Zealand.

When ‘poor batsman’ Gavaskar was tally retired successful Kanpur

The iconic venue was besides wherever batting fable Sunil Gavaskar erstwhile claimed to beryllium a ‘poor batsman’. Playing the sixth and last Test of a agelong location bid against England successful 1982, skipper Gavaskar was near livid erstwhile helium was progressive successful a run-out with his brother-in-law Gundappa Viswanath.

Batting successful reply to England’s 378/9 declared, Gavaskar and Viswanath laid retired an 87-run concern for the 3rd wicket earlier a mix-up outgo Gavaskar, soon aft helium crossed his half-century and became the lone batter to scope 500 runs successful the series.

Gavaskar scored his last Test 100 astatine the Green Park Stadium successful Kanpur successful 1986. (Express File)

“Gavaskar tapped the shot to mid-on and took off, but Vishy took a mates of steps and past ran back. Ian Botham rifled successful a propulsion and helium was caught abbreviated of the ground. He was furious from the infinitesimal Vishy turned him down,” erstwhile cricketer and first-class umpire Sunil Chaturvedi once told The Indian Express arsenic helium recollected the dismissal.

“I hid beside the partition (in the dressing room) and listened to him. He (Gavaskar) was talking to himself, ‘I americium not a bound hitter, I americium a mediocre batsman who runs a batch of singles. Please tally singles for me.’ It went connected for a fewer minutes earlier helium cleared his caput and joined the others outside,” Chaturvedi, the 13th subordinate of the squad then, said.

The ‘poor’ Indian skipper returned for 3 much Tests to Kanpur successful the pursuing years. In his last outing astatine Green Park successful 1986, Gavaskar cracked his 34th and last Test ton (176) against Sri Lanka, earlier finishing his vocation with 10,122 runs.