When Imran Khan Insisted Ramiz Raja To Learn From Sunil Gavaskar

India and Pakistan have produced some outstanding set of cricketers, who constantly learn from one another to keep getting better. One such instance occurred when Ramiz Raja, Imran Khan, and Sunil Gavaskar played for their respective teams. In an exclusive chat with Sportskeeda, Ramiz Raja recalled when Imran Khan wanted his batsmen to learn from Sunil Gavaskar.

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Imran Khan and Sunil Gavaskar were arguably one of the best in their departments. As an all-rounder, Imran Khan was part of the elite quartet and was also one of the fastest bowlers, who delivered a wicked bouncer. In 88 Tests, he scored 3807 runs and took 362 wickets. The 1992 World-Cup winning skipper also fared well in his 175 ODIs. On the other hand, Sunil Gavaskar was the first batsman to reach 10000 Test runs and accumulated 10122 runs in 125 fixtures at 51.12.

Ramiz Raja referred to the 1986-87 series contested in India. The 57-year old stated that he was awestruck watching Sunil Gavaskar bat for the first time. Ramiz said that if Imran Khan told about somebody that he is the best batsman, they were sure to look at him and follow him. In that tour, Pakistan won the five-Test series and the six-match ODI series.

“When I first came across Sunil Gavaskar and he was like a God in the early ‘80s. And if Imran told you that he is the best batsman or somebody was the best batsman in the world, you looked at him, and I was in awe of what I saw, you know, even though Sunil Gavaskar was on his way out. I am talking about 86-87 series,” the cricketer-turned commentator stated.

The former opening batsman recollected him standing at short leg when Imran would come steaming in, trying to remove Gavaskar. But all the batsman would do was to leave the ball outside the off-stump and wait for the correct opportunities.

“So I would stand at short leg and Imran Khan would come and try extremely hard to dislodge him (Sunil Gavaskar) during that India tour of ours and Sunil Gavaskar will be so calm in leaving the ball outside the off-stump and he would wait for the opportunities,” Raja conceded.

“I was an opener as well and he would say, look how he is playing” : Ramiz Raja

Ramiz Raja went on to say whenever the banana in-swing deliveries would follow, Gavaskar would work it through short leg through where he stood and the ball would go for a boundary. In response, Imran Khan would get angry at him, insisting him to learn from Gavaskar on how to bat. Hence, Ramiz would jokingly narrate the anecdote to Sunil, that even though he scored the runs but the Pakistan batsman was the one receiving the flak.

“Whenever Imran bowled those banana in-swing deliveries on his pads, Sunil worked it away through the short leg, through where I was and the ball would run and hit the fence. Instead of getting angry at Sunil Gavaskar, he would look at me because I was an opener as well and he would say, look how he is playing, and then it would be followed by a couple of swear words. So I tell this story to Sunil and even now I say, you scored runs but I got the flak, not you…from Imran because he was in awe of Sunil as well,” he added.

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