- One of the most successful cricketers ever to play for England.
- He was awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in 1991 for his services to Cricket.
- Won 3 consecutive "Man-of-the-match" awards at the 1987 World Cup, including the semi-final win over India. Was also the top scorer of the tournament with 471 runs.
- Statistically, Gooch was the best performing batsman from anywhere across the world against the full-strength West Indies pace attack during the 1980s upto his retirement, with over 2000 runs at an average of nearly 45 and 6 centuries.
- His unbeaten knock of 154 carrying his bat against the West Indies at Headingley in 1991-92 was voted by Wisden as the third greatest individual test innings of all-time.
- Captain of the England Cricket Team from 1988-89 till 1993.
- At the time of his retirement, his tally of 8900 runs was the third highest run aggregate in test cricket behind Australia's Allan Border and India's Sunil Gavaskar. It also stood as an English record for nearly 20 years until overtaken by Alistair Cook in 2015.
- Became the first batsman to score a triple century and a century in the same test when he compiled 333 and 123 against India at Lord's in 1990. His aggregate of 752 runs in the same series is till date the highest number of runs scored in a three test series.
- Lost three years of international cricket for participating in the rebel tour to South Africa in 1982-83.
- Represented England in the 1979, 1987 and 1992 World Cups. On all 3 occasions, England ended as runners-ups. Despite retiring back in 1995, Gooch is still England's highest run scorer combining all editions of the tournament since 1975 till 2019, with 897 runs averaging 44.85 and 2 centuries.
- One of the inaugural inductees in the ICC Hall of Fame, 2009.
- Had a long stand dislike for teammate and fellow batting great David Gower, whom he regarded as reckless and laid back.
- Was dismissed by Kapil Dev of India on 11 occasions in just 32 innings he faced the great all-rounder.
- A hardcore fitness fanatic, Gooch rarely missed a test or an ODI due to injury. It was this regimen which also made him one of the best English fielders of his time, taking over a hundred catches in tests. However, he missed a simple catch of Imran Khan in the final of the 1992 World Cup when the latter was on 25 and went on to top score with 72.
- An epitome of consistency, Gooch averaged 42.75 in all of England's 1st innings and 42.84 in all of it's 2nd innings put together, with his scoring rate of 37.10 in the second innings of the test overall being the only instance he averaged below 40 in any part of the match.
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