India’s former skipper Sunil Gavaskar shared an interesting incident when Imran Khan pushed him to delay his retirement. The Little Master was contemplating to hang his boots and discussed the same with Imran Khan.
However, former Pakistan skipper asked Sunil Gavaskar to reconsider his retirement as he wanted to win a series in India with Gavaskar being in the India team. Thus, the former opening batsman decided to take on the challenge.
Imran Khan wanted to win the series in India.
Sunil Gavaskar recalled the incident when he wrote for the Times of India.
“‘You can’t retire now. Pakistan is coming to India next year and I want to beat India in India. If you aren’t part of that team, it won’t be the same. Come on, let’s have one last tilt against each other,’ Imran Khan replied when I told him I planned to retire at the end of the India tour of England,” Gavaskar wrote in the column.
Gavaskar said that he would have taken the retirement if the Pakistan tour itinerary had not been announced. However, the schedule was out before the final Test match against England.
In fact, Imran Khan got his wish as Pakistan went on to win the third and final Test match. Thus, Pakistan won for the first time on Indian soil.
“I said if the announcement of the tour wasn’t made before the final Test, I would go ahead and announce my retirement from international cricket. The tour was indeed announced in a few days,” Gavaskar wrote.
“Pakistan won the last and final Test of that series after the earlier Tests were all drawn and thus beat India for the first time in India,” Gavaskar added.
Meanwhile, Imran Khan is well known for his leadership skills. Gavaskar added that Imran was confident of Pakistan’s good show in the 1992 World Cup even before the tournament.
“He had a vision before the 1992 World cup started that Pakistan would win the trophy and that’s exactly how it turned out. His belief despite Pakistan’s slow start to the tournament was unshakeable,” he wrote.