'Sit in the balcony, watch me score a ton,' former India spinner Maninder Singh recalls Sunil Gavaskar's words

Former India left-arm spinner Maninder Singh has said that Sunil Gavaskar’s immense concentration was one of his biggest strengths.

In an interaction with Hindustan Times, Maninder, who played 26 Test matches and 35 ODIs between 1982 and 1987 stated, “I used to call him God of concentration,” before going on to explain the reason behind it.

“Every time I used to look at my watch to track the time, it will always be 10 minutes from the time he went in to the time he came out,” he revealed, adding that Gavaskar never had a wristwatch on his hand.

Maninder Singh even recalled an incident from India’s 1986 tour of England where Gavaskar was not scoring enough, but used to tell Kapil Dev that he will get the runs when the time comes.

The former cricketer added that during a game against Somerset, he and Kapil Dev were coming from a fielding practice. Gavaskar, before going out, tapped him on his shoulder and said, “Son don’t go and change, sit in that balcony and watch me score a hundred.” As it turned out, Gavaskar did actually score a ton.

“His concentration level was so good that he knew ‘now the time has come, I have to concentrate’,” said Maninder .

India won the Test series 2-0 with Gavaskar scoring 175 runs in six innings. A year later, Gavaskar reached the pinnacle of 10,000 Test runs, becoming the first cricketer in the history of the game to do so.