Sunil Gavaskar Defends Sachin: 'What's Wrong with His Record?'

Indian cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar has expressed his displeasure over former England captain Michael Vaughan’s statement that Joe Root could break Sachin Tendulkar’s record. But the BCCI would not want that. England’s star batsman Joe Root scored two centuries during the three-match Test series against Sri Lanka and became the batsman to score the most Test centuries for England.

Sachin Tendulkar remains the highest run-scorer in Test cricket after breaking Brian Lara’s record in 2008. He has scored 15,921 runs in 200 matches. Tendulkar is also the only player to score 50 Test centuries, he has scored 51 centuries in the longest format of the game.

Discussions about Root breaking Sachin Tendulkar’s record have started among the English media and their cricketers, meanwhile, Michael Vaughan joked last week that Root overtaking Sachin would make Test cricket interesting but the BCCI will try its best to ensure that an Indian breaks that record. Sunil Gavaskar gave a befitting reply to his statement.

Gavaskar wrote in his column in Sportstar, “Criticism of India should be answered with aggression because this is the only language they understand. Recently I heard someone saying that if Joe Root surpasses Sachin Tendulkar’s record of most runs and centuries in Tests, it will be good for Test cricket.”

He further wrote, “Please tell us, what is wrong with Test cricket right now, when Tendulkar has this record, and how will Test cricket become better if an English player achieves this record? In what way will it be better? Please tell us. For some strange reason, there is a perception abroad that BCCI does not like Test cricket.”