A tribute to the 10 best cricketers of all time India has produced.
India is one of the most popular names in cricket world. They have huge fan following across the world. This South-Asian cricket team has so far won two ICC ODI World Cup and the inaugural T20 World Cup trophies. They have given birth to many talented cricketers and are still continue producing great players. Here is a list of ten Indian cricket players including batsman, bowler, and wicket-keeper.
1) Vijay Hazaare
Vijay Samuel Hazare (11 March 1915 – 18 December 2004) was an Indian cricket player from the state of Maharashtra. He captained the Indian cricket team in 14 matches between 1951 and 1953. In India's 25th Test match, nearly 20 years after India achieved Test status, he led India to its first ever Test cricket win (and the only victory under his captaincy) in 1951–52 against England cricket team at Madras, winning by an innings and eight runs in a match that began on the day that King George VI died. He is the first Indian player to score a triple century in first class cricket. He is also the first Indian cricketer to score back to back century of a Test match. He also made a highest 577-run partnership with Gul Mahomed for any wicket in first-class cricket.
World War Two unfortunately robbed Hazare of much of the player’s time on a cricket pitch, but the all-rounder will always be remembered for a match-winning performance against Australia.
2) Sunil Gavaskar
The fierce battle between India and the Australians is partly named after this legendary opener, who was brilliant under pressure but also knew how to score runs when the time was right. is undoubtedly one of the greatest players in the history of cricket game. This former Indian cricketer is considered as one of the greatest opening batsmen in cricket history. He made his international debut in 1971 and played cricket for sixteen years. In his career, he has achieved many records including the most Test runs and most Test centuries scored by any batsman. His record of 34 Test centuries was unbroken for almost two decades until it was broken by Sachin Tendulkar in December 2005. He is the first player who has scored more than 10,000 runs in Test cricket. Playing 125 Test matches, he has scored 10122 runs with an average of 51.12 with a career best of unbeaten 236 runs.
3) Kapil Dev
Kapil Dev Ramlal Nikhanj (born 6 January 1959), better known as Kapil Dev, is a former Indian cricketer. He captained the Indian cricket team which won the 1983 Cricket World Cup. Named by Wisden as the Indian Cricketer of the Century in 2002,[2] Kapil Dev was one of the greatest all-rounders of all time. He was also India's national cricket coach for 10 months between October 1999 and August 2000.
He successfully led his team to a first World Cup victory in 1983 where they defeated West Indies by 43 runs at Lord's, London. The well-known cricket magazine, Wisden, named him as the Indian Cricketer of the Century in 2002. Not only that but also he was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame on 8 March 2010.
Kapil Dev was a good all rounder. Since making his Test debut in 1978, he played 131 matches and scored 5248 runs at an average of 31.05 with the career best of 163. With the ball, he took 434 and became the highest wicket taker before it was broken by Courtney Walsh in 2000. Till then, he was India’s highest wicket taker in both major forms of cricket, Test and ODI. He is the only player who has taken more than 400 wickets and more than 5000 runs in Test cricket. This performance made him one of the greatest all-rounders to have played the game.
4) Mohammad Azharuddin
Mohammad Azharuddin (born 8 February 1963 in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India) is a former cricketer and an Indian politician. He was an accomplished batsman and captained the Indian cricket team for much of the 1990s, winning the Arjuna Award in 1986. A member of the Indian National Congress, Azharuddin was an M.P from the Moradabad of Uttar Pradesh. Azharuddin was implicated in a match-fixing scandal in 2000, and banned for life, but on 8 November 2012, the Andhra Pradesh High Court lifted the ban, describing it as "unsustainable". He set a record of leading the Indian cricket team to 103 ODI matches which was broken by Sourav Ganguly under him Indian cricket team won more Test matches. However, Azharuddin will be well remembered to his fans as the best captain that Indian team had in ODI. He could play cricket for more years if his career did not end up due to the match fixing reasons.He made his international debut in 1985. Playing 99 Tests, he scored 6215 runs at an average of 45.03. He played 334 ODI matches and scored 9378 runs at an average of 36.92.
5) Rahul Dravid
Rahul Dravid (born 11 January 1973) is a former Indian cricketer and captain, widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. Born in a Marathi family, he started playing cricket at the age of 12 and later represented the state team at the under-15, under-17 and under-19 levels. Hailed as The Wall, Dravid was named one of the best five cricketers of the year by Wisden Cricketers' Almanack in 2000 and received the Player of the Year and the Test Player of the Year awards at the inaugural ICC awards ceremony in 2004. In December 2011, he became the first non-Australian cricketer to deliver the Bradman Oration in Canberra.He is the third highest Test run scorer after Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting. He is the second Indian batsman to have scored more than 12000 runs in International cricket. He has also more than 10000 runs in ODI cricket. He has the record of having taken the highest number of catches in Test cricket. He took more than 200 catches and surpassed the Australian legend Mark Waugh. In 2000, he was included as one of the top-five Wisden Cricketers of the Year. In 2004, in the inaugural award ceremony ICC awarded him the ICC Player of the Year and the Test Player of the Year.
6) M S Dhoni
Mahendra Singh Dhoni commonly known as M. S. Dhoni; (born 7 July 1981) is an Indian cricketer and the current captain of the Indian national cricket team. He is an attacking right-handed middle-order batsman and wicket-keeper. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest finishers in limited-overs cricket. He made his One Day International (ODI) debut in December 2004 against Bangladesh, and played his first Test a year later against Sri Lanka.
Under his captaincy, India won two World Cup trophies- the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 and the 2011 Cricket World Cup. He led the Indian cricket team to get the maiden T20 World Cup trophy beating Pakistan in the final match and regain the World Cup trophy after 28 years. Under his captaincy, the Indian cricket team has claimed some remarkable achievements that the previous captains could not do during their captaincy. Dhoni led the Indian cricket team at the top position of the ICC Test rankings for the first time. He has been added in Time magazine’s “Time 100” list of 100 most influential people of 2011. He has become the first Indian player to get the ICC ODI Player of the Year award in 2008 and 2009. He also got the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award. In 2009, he was honoured with the Padma Shri award, India’s fourth highest civilian honour by government.
7) Saurav Ganguly
Sourav Chandidas Ganguly (born 8 July 1972), affectionately known as Dada is a former Indian cricketer and captain of the Indian national team. Currently, he the Joint Secretary of Cricket Association of Bengal and President of the Editorial Board with Wisden India. Born into an affluent Brahmin family, Ganguly was introduced into the world of cricket by his elder brother Snehasish. He is regarded as one of India's most successful captains in modern times. He started his career by playing in state and school teams. Currently, he is the 5th highest run scorer in One Day Internationals (ODIs) and was the 3rd person in history to cross the 10,000 run landmark, after Sachin Tendulkar and Inzamam Ul Haq. In 2002, the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ranked him the sixth greatest ODI batsman of all time, next to Viv Richards, Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Dean Jones and Michael Bevan.
Since making his Test debut in 1996, he has played 113 Test matches and scored 7212 runs at an average of 42.17 including 16 centuries and 35 half-centuries. He made his ODI debut in 1992 and played 311 matches where he scored 11363 runs at an average of 41.02 with a career best of 183.
8) Anil Kumble
Anil Radhakrishna Kumble (born 17 October 1970) is a former international cricketer and captain of the Indian cricket team. A right-arm leg spin (leg break googly) bowler, he took 619 wickets in Test cricket and remains the third-highest wicket taker—only behind Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne—as of 2012. Unlike his contemporaries, Kumble was not a big turner of the ball, rather relied much on pace and accuracy. His ability to make the ball bounce with subtle variations in pace made him a tough bowler to face for the batsmen; thus earning him the sobriquet "Jumbo". Kumble was selected as the Indian Cricket Cricketer of the Year in 1993 and one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year three years later.
He is regarded as one of the greatest Indian cricketers. This right-arm leg spin bowler is still the leading wicket-taker for India in both Test and one-day international. Of all bowlers, he is the third highest wicket taker after Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne in Test cricket. He is one of only three bowlers who have taken more than 600 Test wickets in the oldest format of cricket game. Playing 132 Tests, he took 619 wickets. He is one of the two bowlers to have taken ten wickets in an innings. He claimed this rare achievement against Pakistan in the second Test played in Delhi between 4 and 8 February 1999. He got 337 wickets in 271 ODI matches.
9) Sachin Tendulkar
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (born 24 April 1973) is a former Indian cricketer widely acknowledged as one of the greatest batsmen of all time. He took up cricket at the age of eleven, made his Test debut against Pakistan at the age of sixteen, and went on to represent Mumbai domestically and India internationally for close to twenty-four years. He is the only player to have scored one hundred international centuries, the first batsman to score a double century in a One Day International, the only player to complete more than 30,000 runs in international cricket and the 16th player and first Indian to aggregate 50,000 runs or more in all forms of domestic and international recognised cricket. In 2002 just half way through his career, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ranked him the second greatest Test batsman of all time, behind Don Bradman, and the second greatest ODI batsman of all time, behind Viv Richards. Later in his career, Tendulkar was a part of the Indian team that won the 2011 World Cup, his first win in six World Cup appearances for India. He had previously been named "Player of the Tournament" at the 2003 edition of the tournament, held in South Africa. In 2013, he was the only Indian cricketer included in an all-time Test World XI named to mark the 150th anniversary of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. Tendulkar received the Arjuna Award in 1994 for his outstanding sporting achievement, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 1997, India's highest sporting honour, and the Padma Shri and Padma Vibhushan awards in 1999 and 2008, respectively, India's fourth and second highest civilian awards. After a few hours of his final match on 16 November 2013, the Prime Minister's Office announced the decision to award him the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award. He is the youngest recipient to date and the first ever sportsperson to receive the award. He also won the 2010 Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for cricketer of the year at the ICC awards. In 2012, Tendulkar was nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India. He was also the first sportsperson and the first person without an aviation background to be awarded the honorary rank of group captain by the Indian Air Force. In 2012, he was named an Honorary Member of the Order of Australia. In December 2012, Tendulkar announced his retirement from ODIs. He retired from Twenty20 cricket in October 2013 and subsequently announced his retirement from all forms of cricket, retiring on 16 November 2013 after playing his 200th and final Test match, against the West Indies in Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium. Tendulkar played 664 international cricket matches in total, scoring 34,357 runs.
10) V V S Laxman
Vangipurapu Venkata Sai Laxman (born 1 November 1974 in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India) commonly known as V.V.S. Laxman, is a former Indian cricketer. He is the great grand nephew of India's second President Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. Laxman represents Hyderabad in domestic cricket and has played for Lancashire in English county cricket. He was the captain of the Deccan Chargers team in the Indian Premier League in its first year before being replaced by Adam Gilchrist for the next year. In 2011, Laxman was awarded the Padma Shri award, India's fourth highest civilian award from the Government of India. Laxman bats right-handed and occasionally bowls off-spin. He is noted for his superb timing and the ability to hit against the spin, reminiscent of his role model Mohammed Azharuddin. Laxman is particularly noted for the skilful use of his supple wrists, which allow him to flick the ball to various places, but usually through the leg side. This also helps in his catching, and he typically fields in the slips or in a bat pad position. Laxman is noted most for his batting against Australia, in both Tests and One Day Internationals. Six out of his 17 Test hundreds, and four out of his six ODI hundreds have come against Australia. He has two double-centuries in Tests, both of them against Australia: his personal best of 281 at Kolkata in 2000–01, and 200 not out at Feroz Shah Kotla in 2008–09, and in 2002 he was named one of Wisden's five Cricketers of the Year. In 2012, Laxman retired from international cricket.
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