All-time combined India-Australia Test XI

#2 Sunil Gavaskar

Sunil Gavaskar

Unlike his batting partner in the list, Gavaskar was only 5 feet, 5 inches tall. But even with such a stature, he went on to score tons of runs in international cricket. And he did it all without wearing a helmet, against the likes of tearaway quicks like Andy Roberts, Joel Garner and Jeff Thompson.

Gavaskar was the fastest to reach 10,000 Test runs and 35 centuries (later broken by Sachin Tendulkar). And although he was known for his unbreachable defence, he was also adept at pulling and hooking the cricket ball.

He could play every shot in the book but often curbed his instincts to lend solidity to the Indian team. For the record, Gavaskar scored 10,122 runs from 125 Tests at an average of 51.12 with 35 hundreds and 45 fifties.