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Greg Chappell vs Sunil Gavaskar

Greater red-ball bat: Chappell vs Gavaskar


  • Total voters
    27

BazBall21

International Regular
This is one I find harder than almost any other comparison.

On the one hand, Gavaskar has the bigger volume of Test runs and a slightly more diverse distribution of runs, whilst also being an opener for a country that really struggled in Test Cricket on the whole before his arrival which carries a bit of extra signifance.

On the other hand, I think Chappell has the more polished record. Looking a little deeper, Sunny had one amazing tour of England, but struggled relatively in the other four tours there, and also struggled on his toughest tour of Australia, West Indies and New Zealand respectively. It’s therefore not too surprising he averages “only” 40 against better than median attacks overseas. Chappell did not face as wide a variety of challenges as Gavaskar due to barely playing in the 80s but he was a monster in WSC and averages strongly against opponents both overall and overseas. There was the failure at home to great WI in 81/82 though.

What do you think? I think this is a tough one.
 

shortpitched713

International Captain
Gavaskar by a comfortable margin for mine. Once again, he opened the batting, and doing that well is worth more than enough to make up the very small difference in average between the two. He played at a very high level for longer as well, which counts for something for mine.

Don't think there's any particularly good argument for Chappell to put him over Gavaskar given the above two facts.
 

Chrish

International Debutant
Cousin Greg probably is a better batsman but opener like Gavaskar is much harder to come across than a no. 3 like GC..
 

subshakerz

International Coach
Gavaskar. Opening is harder for one. But I also feel he is better tested overseas.

Chappell had only one series in Pakistan, one series in WI, and never played in India. So having a more well-rounded record doesn't mean as much.
 

BazBall21

International Regular
Gavaskar. Opening is harder for one. But I also feel he is better tested overseas.

Chappell had only one series in Pakistan, one series in WI, and never played in India. So having a more well-rounded record doesn't mean as much.
Gavaskar definitely had more challenges in Tests. In terms of both variety of conditions and bowling attacks. May not come across this way in my preview but I always hesitate to reward Chappell for being less tested.
 

Calm_profit

State Vice-Captain
Has to be Gavaskar since he played many more matches and didn't skip tours.
I don't know why people in CW try to exaggerate things,Chappell only skipped 2 tours in his cricketing career,one was in Ashes 1981 and other one was in Pakistan 1982 and rest of the tours he was suspended by his own board by playing WSC.
 

Burgey

Request Your Custom Title Now!
Gavaskar easily in this one for me.

GC picked and chose his tours a bit too much to come out ahead of a guy with a similar average from roughly the same era who played a lot more matches.

GC still a great player but Gavaskar takes this one imho
 

Burgey

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Gavaskar. Opening is harder for one. But I also feel he is better tested overseas.

Chappell had only one series in Pakistan, one series in WI, and never played in India. So having a more well-rounded record doesn't mean as much.
It’s probably a good thing he didn’t play in india at that time or else I suspect this comparison would be a bit harder. Was a terrific player of spin.
 

Johan

U19 12th Man
Chappel for me , After taking an in-depth look at Gavaskar's record I feel Chappel's is more well rounded in comparasion to sunny.
 

h_hurricane

International Vice-Captain
A bit late to this but have to state something so blatantly clear. We are talking about two undisputed sub humans here. Picking one over the other is settling for immense mediocrity as far as HDI is concerned. Put these two in a cage with a hungry lion or a tiger and the suffocated big cat will yearn to come out of it, hurting neither. If a reboot of homosapiens is done, these two should be the last in the list to be selected.

Ask a million aussies, a billion indians or a random chinese, american or bulgarian, and they will concur with me on the above, without a second thought.

OP of course deserves a dressing down for this comparison. Mods not doing their jobs obviously not helping.
 

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