Sunil Gavaskar’s 10,000 runs are equal to today’s 15,000: Pakistan’s Inzamam-ul-Haq

New Delhi, July 17 (HS) Former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq praised Indian veteran cricketer Sunil Gavaskar, saying that very few have achieved what the India great managed in his celebrated Test career.

Inzamam-ul-Haq said the worth of Sunil Gavaskar’s 10,122 Test runs is more than what it is as the former India opener had played in pitches that were way more difficult to bat on than the ones in the current era.

On his YouTube channel Inzamam said, “If you ask me, I’ll say Sunil’s 10,000 runs of that era are equal to today’s 15,000 to 16,000 runs. These can be more than that but not less in any way. There were several great players in his era as well as before that. There were batsmen like Javed Miandad, Viv Richards, Garry Sobers, and Don Bradman but none of them thought to reach the figure.”

Sunil Gavaskar became the first batsman to get to 10,000 Test runs. The India great finished his career 10,122 runs in 125 Tests at a staggering average of over 51. Gavaskar scored 34 hundreds and dominated bowling attacks, even the mighty ones from West Indies and Australia.

“If your form is good you can even score 1000 to 1500 runs in a season. But when Sunil was batting, the situation was not like that. Today purely batting wickets are prepared so that you can continue scoring runs. The ICC also wants to see batsmen doing that so that spectators are entertained. But in the past wickets were not so easy to bat on, especially when you were playing outside the subcontinent,” Inzamam said.

Gavaskar ended his 16-year-long career in 1987 with a home Test against Pakistan in Bengaluru.