Pace, swing made facing Imran and co. difficult in 1982/83: Gavaskar

Batting legend Sunil Gavaskar said that India's 1982/83 tour of Pakistan was one of the toughest ever for him simply because of the reverse swing that Imran Khan and Sarfaraz Nawaz managed to extract.

"In 1982-83 when India toured Pakistan and the way Imran Khan bowled and picked up 40 odd wickets in the series it was tough," said Gavaskar in a chat on Youtube with former Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja.

Pakistan won the six-match Test series 3-0 and captain Imran was the highest wicket-taker with 40 scalps. For India, Kapil Dev was the highest wicket-taker with 24 wickets. He would lead India to victory at the 1983 World Cup later in the year but on this tour, Gavaskar was still captain of the team.

"Every spell Imran and Sarfaraz (Sarfaraz Nawaz) bowled was testing. In those days nobody had heard about or seen reverse swing. The new ball wasn't a problem but the way the ball swung post lunch was difficult to face," he said.

Gavaskar also said that facing former New Zealand all-rounder Richard Hadlee in the latter's home conditions was difficult for the same reason.

"Facing Richard Hadlee's pace and swing in those conditions was very testing. The toughest test I would say was facing Hadlee in the three Tests in New Zealand in 1981," he added.