text: At the pinnacle of his career, Vengsarkar was rated as the best batsman in the Coopers and Lybrand rating (a predecessor of the PWC ratings) and he held the number one slot for 21 months until 2 March 1989. In 2014, he received the C. K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award, the highest honour conferred by BCCI on a former player.
  Career
  Vengsarkar made his international cricket debut against New Zealand at Auckland in 1975–76 as an opening batsman.  India won this Test convincingly, but he did not have much success. Later on he usually batted in the No.3 or No.4 position.
  He played a memorable inning in 1979 against Asif Iqbal's Pakistan team in the 2nd Test at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi. Requiring 390 to win on the final day, he led India's chase getting the team very close to a victory. India ended up with 364 for 6, just 26 runs short of what would have been a remarkable win. With Yashpal Sharma, Kapil Dev and Roger Binny back to the pavilion after the Tea break, Vengsarkar saw himself running out of partners and decided to play the last few overs for a draw. He remained unbeaten on 146.
  During the 1978–79 Test Series in India against the West Indies, he was involved in a partnership of over 300 runs with Sunil Gavaskar at Calcutta, with both batsman scoring centuries.