A. D. GAEKWAD



🏏🏏
A. D. GAEKWAD
(23 Sep 1952 - 31 Jul 2024)

A scion of the Gaekwad royal family of Baroda, Bombay born Anshuman Dattajirao Gaekwad was it's second generation Test cricketer...

Gaekwad made his Test debut in 1974 at Eden Gardens, Calcutta, against Clive Lloyd's mighty West Indies as a middle order batsman, coming in after Roberts had sent a bleeding Indian skipper Mansoor Ali Khan back to the pavilion. Perhaps a beginning of such things for the debutante, as over time Gaekwad eventually went up the ladder to become Gavaskar's regular opening partner in 30 Tests...

Representing India in 40 Tests, Gaekwad scored 1985 runs @30.07, 2 hundreds and 10 fifties with 201 as his highest, 15 catches and 2 wickets. In 15 ODIs Gaekwad has 269 runs @20.69, with just the one fifty-plus score of 78* as his highest, 6 catches and 1 wicket...

Gaekwad played his final Test too at Eden Gardens against David Gower's England in the 1984-85 series, which saw Mohammed Azharuddin’s century on debut and Kapil Dev being made to sit out...

A regular opener for Baroda, Gaekwad had an impressive domestic first-class record. 12136 runs in 206 games @41.56, 34 hundreds, 47 fifties, 160 catches and 143 wickets...

Basically a grafter of runs, Gaekwad had a good defence with an ability to stay put at one end. His lack of elegance and limited stroke play were more than compensated by an abundance of grit, courage, patience and concentration, which were invaluable commodities in Indian cricket of his times...

Gaekwad's 671 minutes willow-wielding for his Test-best 201 against Pakistan at Jalandhar in 1982-83, the slowest double-century in first-class cricket, bears testimony to precisely what was said above...

Gaekwad’s guts was in ample display in the West Indies tour of 1975-76, with Michael Holding spearheading the "modern bodyline" bowling and sending him onto the operation table for an ear surgery. However, Holding admitted that Gaekwad held no grudges, and remained in contact via emails and Christmas cards...

Gaekwad was also a part of that historic run chase at Port of Spain. His efforts were all the more praiseworthy since it was in an era sans helmets and bouncer restrictions...

Post retirement Gaekwad continued his services to the game as a selector, 1992-96, and as coach twice - 1997 to 1999, and a short period in 2000 taking over from Kapil Dev and handing it over to John Wright. He also had a short coaching stint with the Kenyan cricket team...

Recipient of the C. K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018, Gaekwad lost his battle against leukemia this day, 2024, in Vadodara. Incidentally, his father Dattajirao Krishnarao Gaekwad, the then oldest Indian Test cricketer, had passed away just five months prior, 13th February 2024, in the same city...

🙏🙏🌹💐 🇮🇳

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