Sunny’s memorable openings

First test opening partnerAshok Mankad was the first of Sunil Gavaskarrsquos 19 opening partners in Tests They opened in six Tests all of them in the historic year of 1971 Gavaskarrsquos twoTest association with Ramnath Parkar his second opening partner in 197273 was unique in that it constituted a rare instance of the same pair facing the new ball for its national India zonal West Zone domestic Mumbai and club Dadar Union teamsFirst centuryHe scored the first of his 34 Test centuries ndash an innings of 116 in the second Test of his career against the West Indies at Georgetown 12 years later he scored his 27th Test century at the same venueFirst double centuryHe scored the first of his four Test double centuries in the last Test of his maiden series against WI in 197071 After battling acute dental pain to score 124 in the first innings he batted for 529 minutes in the second innings to score 220 becoming only the second batter after Australiarsquos Doug Walters to score a century and double century in the same Test in the processSunil Gavaskar being introduced to Queen Elizabeth in 1971First Test as captainWhen Bishan Singh Bedi Indiarsquos new captain was injured before the first Test against New Zealand in 197576 his deputy Sunil Gavaskar assumed charge and led India to victory by eight wickets The debutant captain also scored a century Another centurion was Surinder Amarnath who was making his Test debutTwo other debutants in the game were Dilip Vengsarkar and Syed KirmaniAlso Read Sunny side of the streetsFirst Test captainGavaskarrsquos first Test captain was Ajit Wadekar who made his debut as India captain in the same series in which Gavaskar debuted as a player With a record 774 runs in his maiden series Gavaskar made a significant contribution to Indiarsquos win in the West Indies under Wadekarrsquos captaincyFirst bookHis first book was Sunny Days his autobiography which was released in 1976 It was a runaway success and continues to be so 47 years later His subsequent books were Idols Runs nrsquo Ruins OneDay Wonders and Straight DriveFirst ODI hundredHe scored his first and only ODI century against New Zealand at Nagpur in Indiarsquos last league game of the 1987 World Cup His unbeaten 103 which took him only 88 deliveries to score ensured that India overhauled a target of 222 in only 321 overs and topped their group in the processFirst filmHe made his acting debut in a Marathi film called Saavli Premachi in which he sang and danced and even ran around trees with the heroine He was later seen in another Marathi film called Zakhol He played himself in a Hindi film called MaalamaalFirst ICC assignmentHe was the ICCrsquos Match Referee for one Test and five ODIs on Englandrsquos tour of the West Indies in 199394 He later chaired the ICCrsquos Cricket Committee from 2000 to 2008Sunil Gavaskar chats with Sachin Tendulkar for a TV showFirst TV serieslsquoSunil Gavaskar Presentsrsquo was a weekly TV series that showcased memorable cricket matches of the 1970s 1980s and early 1990s The first two seasons of the series were telecast on Doordarshan in 1987 and 1988 respectively and the third was telecast on Prime Sports in 1995 In the preYouTube era lsquoSGPrsquo provided TV viewers in India with glimpses of significant matches like the 1975 World Cup final the Centenary Test of 1977 and Indiarsquos Test wins at the Oval and Melbourne in 1971 and 1981 respectively The prominent guests on the show comprised Vivian Richards Kapil Dev Sachin Tendulkar Ajit Wadekar Mohinder Amarnath Ravi Shastri BS Chandrasekhar Bishan Singh Bedi K Srikkanth and Sandeep PatilSunil Gavaskar after being felicitated by the BCCI on the 50th anniversary of his Test debut in Ahmedabad on March 6 2021 PicsPTI Getty Images midday archives1st comicbook appearanceHe starred as a superhero in lsquoSunny The Supersleuthrsquo a comicbook series in the mid1980s The series was the brainchild of Bharat Savur who had been Gavaskarrsquos college classmate and his wife Shalini SavurThe superhero has in his armoury the Marzuki the worldrsquos first lsquoaeromobilersquo car as well as shoes that can help him fly and a bomb tracking deviceIn the first instalment of the series Sunny foils the plans of a terrorist outfit to blow up a stadium during a match in the country of BandookstanIn the second he rescues Jack Gotham the MVP of the England team that is touring India from his kidnappers In the third he outwits Rangraj the evil colour king who wants to melt the Himalayan snowcaps and drown the worldFirst stint as Indiarsquos cricket managercoachWhen Ajit Wadekar Indiarsquos cricket manager suffered a heart attack during the AustralAsia Cup tournament in Sharjah in April 1994 Sunil Gavaskar took a break from his commentary commitments and guided the team for the remainder of the tournament1976The year Sunil Gavaskar first captained India albeit as a standin leader for regular skipper Bishan Singh Bedi who was injured for the Auckland Test