Gundappa Viswanath - Career and Highlights

Career and Highlights

On his Test match debut, Viswanath scored a century against Australia at Kanpur in 1969 in a drawn match. He also recorded a duck in the same game, one of only three batsmen to have done this in their first match. He scored 13 more centuries in his Test career and none of them came in a match that was lost. He tended to produce his best performances on difficult pitches and a number of his best innings were not centuries, but were crucial to the team's cause. Against Australia and the West Indies, both known for their strong pace attacks, he had a batting average of over 50. He was at his peak in the mid-1970s. Against the West Indies at Madras in 1974-75 he scored 97 not out out of a total of 190 against a bowling attack containing Andy Roberts. Despite not being a century, it was regarded as one of the finest performances by an Indian and it led to an Indian victory. The Wisden 100 ranked it the 38th best innings of all time, and the second best non-century. He had also scored a match-winning century in the previous Test at Calcutta, but despite a 95 in the final Test at Bombay the series was lost 3-2.

In 1975-76, Viswanath again produced some strong performances against the West Indies, the most notable of which was his 112 at Port of Spain which helped India to reach the victory target of 403. At the time, this was the highest successful run-chase in Test cricket. In 1978-79 at Madras he again top scored with 124 out of a total of 255. India went on to win the match which ultimately led to a 1-0 series victory in the 6-match series, although this West Indian side was considerably weaker than in previous series after many players opted to play in World Series Cricket instead.

In the 1982-83 season Test Series in Pakistan, Viswanath was part of the team which lost the series 3-0. Viswanath was one of the Indian batsmen who did not fare well against the blistering pace of Imran Khan who was arguably at his peak in the series, snapping 40 wickets. This series proved to be Viswanath's last.