Former Indian cricketer and legend Sunil Gavaskar shared how former Pakistan World Cup winning captain Imran Khan helped him achieve a huge milestone in his career. Talking on the ‘Dressing Room’ show, he recalled an incident where he wanted to quit Test cricket but Imran stopped him.

“I got the opportunity to do so (score 10,000 Test runs) only because of one Imran Khan,” he said. “Now, a year before in England, after the first Test was won, Imran and I went with a friend for lunch in London bang opposite the Harolds in London, there is an Italian restaurant. We went for a lunch there. At this point, I told him, this is going to be my last tour (India tour of England 1986). I am going to quit after this.”

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Sunil Gavaskar also added that Imran Khan told him that Pakistan were going to tour India and also asked him not to quit. Had the former Indian legend not taken Imran’s advice, he would have ended with around 9200 to 9300 runs as well.

“He said ‘No, no you cannot do this.’ I said, ‘What do you mean no, it is my choice.’ He said ‘Pakistan is coming to India, and I want to beat India with you playing’. I said if that announcement is there, I will carry on. But if it doesn’t come, I will finish after the next Test. Sure enough, the announcement came through and I carried on. If I retired at that time, I would have had finished with 9200-9300 runs. Because of that announcement, there were two other series in India, so I got close to 10,000. If Imran had not told me to carry on…,” he concluded.