“He challenged me and I accepted”: When Kapil Dev agreed with Sunil Gavaskar’s comments of him underacheiving in Test career

Indian all-rounder Kapil Dev has been famous for his comments on players. He recently made a remark on Virat Kohli as which, to which Usman Khawaja also took a dig at the legendary Indian all-rounder. Earlier, Kapil once said that Sachin Tendulkar underachieved in his career and this led to widespread criticism.

Dev said in 2015 that his remarks were misinterpreted by the press. People also blamed Dev do not like Mumbai’s cricketers as his rifts with Sunil Gavaskar were always in the air. To clear the misconception about his comments, Dev gave an example of Gavaskar only.

Dev revealed that when he was going through a rough phase, Gavaskar used to tease him by saying that “Kapil can’t get another Test fifty”. The all-rounder insists that those words motivated him to do well, and he scored two half-centuries in quick succession. Dev said the same about his statement that Tendulkar was out of this world and should have achieved more.

When Kapil Dev agreed with Sunil Gavaskar’s comments of him underacheiving in test career

Sunil Gavaskar has said in many interviews that Kapil Dev underachieved in his career. Gavaskar was always critical of Dev’s batting, and he insists that he should have scored more runs in his Test career. He has often expressed his disappointment about the same.

In an interview with The Hindu, even Dev agreed that Gavaskar was right about him underachieving in Test cricket. He accepted that he should have worked hard on his batting, and never took Gavaskar’s comment the wrong way. Dev credited Gavaskar as saying that he was the one who challenged him to score 5000 runs, and he accepted that challenge.

“Gavaskar used to say that I should have scored 5000 runs more than what I did. In hindsight, I agree I should have taken my batting seriously. But importantly, I didn’t take Gavaskar’s remark in the wrong sense. He challenged me and I accepted it,” Kapil Dev said in an interview.

Dev finished his Test career with 5,248 runs and 434 wickets. He is the only all-rounder in the history of Test cricket to have double of 5000 runs and 400 wickets.