Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar pens a moving tribute to his longest-serving opening partner Chetan Chauhan, who died of Covid-19 relat...
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar pens a moving tribute to his longest-serving opening partner Chetan Chauhan, who died of Covid-19 related complications on Sunday.
Chauhan, who played 40 Tests for India, was Sunil Gavaskar’s longest-serving opening partner. He formed a good opening partnership with Gavaskar, scoring over 3000 runs together with 10 century stands from 59 innings. Only Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir have put together more century partnerships for the first wicket than Chauhan and Gavaskar in Tests for India.
Here’s Gavaskar’s tribute to his friend:
“Aaja, aaja, gale mil, after all we are in the mandatory overs of life” was the usual greeting of my opening partner Chetan Chauhan whenever we met over the last two or three years.
The meetings were invariably at his beloved Ferozeshah Kotla ground where he was in charge of the pitch preparation. As we hugged I would say to him that “no, no we must have another century partnership” and he would laugh and then say “arre baba you are the century maker, not me”.
Never in my wildest nightmares could I believe that his words about being in the mandatory overs of life would come true so soon. It’’s so hard to believe that his laughter and cheerful banter won’’t be there the next time...
