OTD | Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar’s son Rohan Gavaskar was born today in 1976

Former India player Rohan Gavaskar is celebrating his 48th birthday today. He belonged to a family filled with cricketing genius. Being the son of Sunil Gavaskar was a huge addition of pressure on the young shoulders of Rohan but it was not just his father’s legacy that kept him on toes. Another Indian great, Gundappa Vishwanath, is his uncle and this connection with these cricketing stalwarts made him work harder to prove himself. 

Rohan Gavaskar made his debut in international cricket in 2004 after grinding hard in domestic cricket for around a decade. He was called up for the 2004 VB series and got the opportunity to play his first One-Day international against Australia in Brisbane. It was a big occasion for Gavaskar to make his debut. Even established players find it difficult to deal with the conditions in Australia and the fierce Australian bowling unit. On his debut, he only got to play 3 deliveries and scored a couple of runs. But he made his contribution with his bowling in the second innings and dismissed Andrew Symonds who was looking dangerous. 

A short-lived international career

Gavaskar scored his first half-century of his ODI career in the same series against Zimbabwe a few days later. But he could not continue his form and a string of low scores resulted in his ouster from the team. It was an unfortunate exclusion for Gavaskar who had worked hard to break into the Indian team but the exclusion was not unjustified considering his form. 

He played his last international match against Pakistan in the Champions Trophy at Birmingham in 2004. The left-hander could not make a comeback after that and it was an end to his international career. Rohan Gavaskar had a long first-class career. He played 117 first-class matches scoring 6938 runs at an average of 44.19. Throughout his career, he played for Bengal and was a very important player for the team.