He has been lauded for his excellent record against the WIs. And it is excellent. But it's also misleading, because the majority of those matches WERE NOT against Marshall, Holding, Roberts and Garner, but much weaker bowling attacks.
So, anyone who says "Sunil is the greatest opener ever because he succeeded against the pace might of the WIs in the 70s and 80s" is kind of wrong, or manipulating the truth...
His record against Australia is similar to his WI Record. All the runs came either in the WSC years or 1985 (year of South African rebel tour - Alderman, Rackerman etc went to South Africa, Lillee, Thompson, Hogg, Pascoe, Dymock etc all recently retired).
In the 1972 World 11 Series (Lillee, Mckenzy), Gavaskar averaged 24 in 4 match's and 1981/1982? against Lillee, Hogg, Lawson? he averaged 19 in 3 match's.
From what I remember in 1981/82?, it was not that Gavaskar got out Quickly (in Adelaide he batted for 2 or 3 hours for 20 odd runs). It was more that Australian bowlers strangled his scoring with a McGrath like line.
Gavaskar was a brilliant defensive batsman, In Australia atleast, he did not drive on the up, he waited for the bowlers to bowl a 4 ball. Gavaskar did well against fast erratic bowlers (Thomson, Clark's), it was perhaps the McGrath type bowler from both ends that could cause him problems.
