Sunil Gavaskar is 70: The legend and his records

Former India batsman and legend Sunil Gavaskar turns 70 today.

The maestro was the first superstar batsman from India who broke and created new records at will, before the arrival of Sachin Tendulkar. He was the first to be nicknamed the "little master", faced the legendary West Indies bowling of the 1980s and plundered runs against the fearsome attack.

He notched up centuries on difficult pitches in Australia, England and India's archrival Pakistan. His contributions to the game are immense and he has been acknowledged as one of the greatest batsmen to have played the game. On his birthday, let's look back at his glorious list of records.

Gavaskar was the first Test cricket player to score over 10,000 runs; a feat that was unimaginable at that time. He reached the then-unknown territory on March 7, 1987, with a quick single off Pakistani bowler Ejaz Fakih at Sardar Patel Stadium, Ahmedabad.

He held the record for the highest number of Test centuries (34) before Sachin Tendulkar exceeded that feat in 2005. Gavaskar broke Sir Don Bradman's record of 29 Test centuries on Dec. 28, 1983, while playing against West Indies.

He holds the record for the highest amount of runs (774) scored in a series by a debutant. Till date, it is also the most runs made by any player in a series against the West Indies.

The mighty West Indies team was Gavaskar's favourite opponent, given the plethora of records against them. He has the maximum number of runs (2,749) and centuries (13) scored by a batsman against the West Indies.

Till date, he is the only cricketer to score four consecutive centuries at two venues – Port of Spain and Wankhede Stadium.

He is the only cricketer with 58 century partnerships with 18 different players.

Along with Australia's Ricky Ponting and David Warner, he holds the record for centuries scored in both innings of a Test match on three separate occasions.

He also became the first Indian fielder (excluding wicketkeepers) to bag over a hundred catches in Test cricket.

He became the first Indian batsman to carry his bat in Test cricket when he scored 127 not out in Faisalabad against Pakistan in 1983, a record that would be later matched by Rahul Dravid and Cheteshwar Pujara.