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That Aunshuman Gaekwad, who passed away in Baroda on Wednesday night at the age of 71 figured in every Test series India played against the mighty West Indies from 1974-75 to 1983-84, speaks volumes of what the selectors thought of him as a tackler of fast bowling.
In fact, Gaekwad, who died of blood cancer, made his Test debut against the men from the Caribbean in 1974-75 at Kolkata, where he scored 36 and 4. In the next Test at Chennai, he scored only 7 in the first innings, but made up for it with 80 before being run out. He scored 51 and 42 in the fifth and final Test at Mumbai during the inaugural Test at the Wankhede Stadium.
Of course, that 80 in Chennai didn’t become as famous as the gutsy 81 retired hurt in Kingston 1976 when India were flattened physically and mentally by the West Indies pace attack spearheaded by a young Michael Holding, who claimed seven wickets in the Test which the hosts won to clinch the series 2-1.
A report in the West Indies Cricket Annual thus described Gaekwad’s innings and the end of it: “After batting 7 and a half hours for 81, he [Gaekwad] took what was to be the final of many blows. The lift [that Holding extracted] was so sharp that he could hardly move as the ball hit him on the left ear, the impact knocking off his spectacles in the process.”
Andy Roberts, who was not fully fit and thus rested for the last two Tests of that series, told mid-day.com on Wednesday that Gaekwad was, “a solid and brave batsman, who played an integral part of India’s success.”
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Gaekwad’s next 50-plus scores on Caribbean soil were witnessed in the fourth and fifth Tests of the 1982-83 tour. He fought for two and quarter hours for his 55 before Holding disturbed his furniture at Barbados and the second innings 72 he got in his last Test innings on the tour at Antigua took him five hours, 55 minutes. In the process, he put on 200 runs with Mohinder Amarnath in the drawn Test.
In the 1978-79 home series against Alvin Kallicharran’s team, Gaekwad scored 293 runs at 41.86. He started off with 87 in Bangalore while his last innings for the series eventuated in a century in a drawn Test.
“Aunshu also had set his heart on scoring a century and he achieved it in the dying stages of the [second] day`s play and celebrated by waving his hands and banging the bat in joy on the ground. Just when Vish [Gundappa Vishwanath] looked set to score his first double century in Tests, he fell in trying to loft a ball over the bowler`s head,” wrote Sunil Gavaskar in Sportsworld magazine.
The most unproductive series for Gaekwad against the West Indies was the 1983-84 one at home. In six Tests he could manage only 174 runs. Gaekwad’s highest score of 201 came against Pakistan in the previous series. It gave him a lot of satisfaction, but it was against the West Indies that he displayed the special steel layers he had in his make up.
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