Amit Amola
Though Hockey is India's national sport but cricket is the one running in our blood. Cricket in India is not just a game ... its a festival, which every Indian celebrates equally. We treat these cricketers as God and worship them. They are like our savior with a bat like trishul in their arms.
Here's the list of top 20 cricketers in India.
He has all the records that every cricketer dreams of. He is called the Master of Cricket or rather say the "God Of Cricket". Starting his career in the age of 16, he became the youngest player to debut for India in Tests at the age of 16 years and 205 days.
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. In 2002, 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.
He has won many awards in his cricketing career. These include Arjuna Award, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Padma Shri and the Padma Vibhushan Award. Moreover he is the youngest recipient to date and the first ever sportsperson to receive the Bharat Ratna Award, India's highest civilian award.
He 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, 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.
Nicknamed The Haryana Hurricane, he represented the Haryana cricket team in domestic cricket. He retired in 1994, holding the world record for the most number of wickets taken in Test cricket, a record subsequently broken by Courtney Walsh in 2000. At the time, he was also India's highest wicket taker in both major forms of cricket, Tests and ODIs. He is the only player in the history of cricket to have taken more than 400 wickets (434 wickets) and scored more than 5,000 runs in Tests, making him one of the greatest all-rounders to have played the game. On 8 March 2010, Kapil Dev was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.
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. He was one of the greatest Indian batsman of that era along with Vijay Merchant. 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 has been honoured with a trophy in his name, the Vijay Hazare Trophy, a zonal-cricket tournament in India. He and Jasu Patel were the first cricketers to be honoured with the Padma Shri.
Sunil Manohar (born 10 July 1949) is a former cricketer who played during the 1970s and 1980s for the Bombay cricket team and India. Widely regarded as one of the greatest opening batsmen in cricket history, Gavaskar set world records during his career for the most Test runs and most Test centuries scored by any batsman. He held the record of 34 Test centuries for almost two decades before it was broken by Sachin Tendulkar in December 2005.
Gavaskar was widely admired for his technique against fast bowling, with a particularly high average of 65.45 against the West Indies, who possessed a four-pronged fast bowling attack regarded as the most vicious in Test history.In 2012 Gavaskar was awarded the Col CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award for Cricket in India.
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. 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.
As of October 2012, Dravid is the fourth-highest run scorer in Test cricket, after Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting and Jacques Kallis, and is only the second Indian cricketer, after Tendulkar to score 10,000 runs both in Tests and in ODIs. In 2004, after completing his century against Bangladesh in Chittagong, he became the first and the only player till date to score a century in all the ten Test-playing countries. As of October 2012, he holds the record for the most number of catches taken by a player (non-wicket-keeper) in Test cricket, with 210.
Rahul Dravid, along with Glenn McGrath were honoured during the seventh annual Bradman Awards function in Sydney on 1 November 2012. Dravid has also been honoured with the Padma Bhushan award, India's third highest civilian award.
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 is a cricket commentator and President of the Editorial Board with Wisden India. 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. Ganguly was awarded the Padma Shri in 2004, one of India's highest civilian awards.
Mahendra Singh 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.
Dhoni is the captain of India in all three forms of the game. His Test and ODI records are the best among all Indian captains to date. He took over the ODI captaincy from Rahul Dravid in 2007 and led the team to its first ever bilateral ODI series wins in Sri Lanka and New Zealand. Under his captaincy, India won the 2007 ICC World Twenty20, the CB Series of 2007–08, the 2010 Asia Cup, the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup and the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy. In the final of the 2011 World Cup, Dhoni scored 91 not out off 79 balls to take India to victory for which he was awarded the Man of the Match.
In 2009, Dhoni also led the Indian team to number one position for the first time in the ICC Test rankings. In 2013, under his captaincy, India became the first team in more than 40 years to whitewash Australia in a Test series. In June 2013, when India defeated England in the final of the Champions Trophy in England, Dhoni became the first captain to win all the three ICC trophies. He has also captained the Chennai Super Kings to victory in the 2010 and 2011 seasons of Indian Premier League along with the 2010 Champions League Twenty20.
Virender Sehwag (born 20 October 1978) is an Indian cricketer. An aggressive right-handed opening batsman and a part-time right-arm off-spin bowler, he played his first One Day International in 1999 and joined the Indian Test team in 2001. In April 2009, Sehwag became the only Indian to be honoured as the Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World for his performance in 2008, subsequently becoming the first player of any nationality to retain the award for 2009.
Sehwag holds multiple records including the highest score made by an Indian in Test cricket (319), which was also the fastest triple century in the history of international cricket as well as the fastest 250 by any batsman. Sehwag also holds the distinction of being one of four batsmen in the world to have ever surpassed 300 twice in Test cricket, and the only one to score two triple centuries and take a five-wicket innings haul. In March 2009, Sehwag smashed the fastest century ever scored by an Indian in ODI cricket, from 60 balls. On 8 December 2011, he hit his maiden double century in ODI cricket, against West Indies, becoming the second batsman after Sachin Tendulkar to reach the landmark. His score remains the highest individual score in ODI cricket – 219 off 149 balls. He is the only player in the world to score a double hundred in ODI and a triple hundred in Test Cricket.
Virat Kohli (born 5 November 1988) is an Indian cricketer. A middle-order batsman, who can also bowl right arm medium pace. Kohli captained the victorious Indian team at the 2008 U/19 Cricket World Cup held in Malaysia, and is the captain of the Royal Challengers Bangalore franchise in the Indian Premier League. He also represents Delhi in first-class cricket and played for the West Delhi Cricket Academy. In One Day International (ODI) cricket, Kohli holds the record for the fastest century by an Indian batsman, and became the fastest to 17 hundreds in ODI by any batsman. He is the fourth batsman in ODIs after Sourav Ganguly (1997-2000), Sachin Tendulkar (1996-98) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (2007–09) to hit 1000 or more ODI runs in three or more consecutive calendar years. He also holds the record for most centuries in chases, with 11 centuries, behind only Sachin Tendulkar. He is the first batsman to make five successive scores of 50 or more in ODIs on two separate occasions.
Kohli was the recipient of the ICC ODI Player of the Year award in 2012. SportsPro has rated him the 2nd most marketable athlete in the world. In October 2013, against Australia, Kohli smashed the fastest ODI century by an Indian, the seventh fastest ever. In November 2013, he became the top ranked ODI batsman for the first time. Kohli, also received the Man of the Tournament during the 2014 T20 World Cup in Bangladesh.
Yuvraj Singh (born 12 December 1981) is an Indian international cricketer. He is an all-rounder who bats left-handed in the middle-order and bowls slow left-arm orthodox. He is the son of former Indian fast bowler and Punjabi actor Yograj Singh. Yuvraj has been a member of the Indian cricket team in ODIs since 2000 and played his first Test match in 2003. He was the vice-captain of the ODI team from late-2007 to late-2008. He was the Man of the Tournament in the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup, and one of the top performers at the 2007 ICC World Twenty20, both of which India won. In a match against England at the 2007 World Twenty20, he famously hit six sixes in one over bowled by Stuart Broad — a feat performed only three times previously in any form of senior cricket, and never in an international match between two Test cricket teams.
Yuvraj was conferred with the Arjuna Award, India's second highest sporting award, in the year 2012 by the President of India Pranab Mukherjee. In 2014, he was awarded the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honour.
Suresh Kumar Raina (born 27 November 1986) is an Indian cricketer from Rainawari, Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir. He is an attacking left-handed middle-order batsman and an occasional off-spin bowler. He plays for Uttar Pradesh in all forms of domestic cricket and is the vice-captain of Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League. He has also captained the Indian cricket team and is the second youngest player to captain India. He is only Indian to score a century in all three formats of the game. He is also the highest run-getter and has taken the most catches in the IPL.
Raina made his ODI debut in 2005 against Sri Lanka at the age of 18. However, his Test debut came only five years later, in 2010, against the same opposition. He scored a hundred on his Test debut (120). He holds the record for having played the most ODIs before making Test debut. He was a part of India's World Cup winning team of 2011.
Gautam Gambhir (born 14 October 1981) is an Indian international cricketer. He is a left-handed opening batsman who plays domestic cricket for Delhi, and captains Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League (IPL). He made his One Day International (ODI) debut against Bangladesh in 2003, and played his first Test the following year against Australia. He captained the Indian team in six ODIs from late-2010 to late-2011 with India winning all six matches. He played an integral part in India's wins in the finals of both the 2007 World Twenty20 (75 from 54 balls) and the 2011 Cricket World Cup (97 from 122 balls).
Gambhir is the only Indian and one of four international cricketers to have scored five hundreds in five consecutive Test matches. He is the only Indian batsman to have scored more than 300 runs in four consecutive Test series. As of February 2014, he is the highest run-scorer for India in Twenty20 Internationals. Under Gambhir's captaincy, the Kolkata Knight Riders won their maiden IPL title in 2012 and again in 2014. Fellow Indian team-mate Virender Sehwag called Gambhir "the best Indian opener since Sunil Gavaskar".
He was conferred the Arjuna Award, India's second highest sporting award, in the year 2008 by the President of India. In 2009, he was the number one ranked batsman in ICC Test rankings. The same year, he was the recipient of the ICC Test Player of the Year award.
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 Cricketer of the Year in 1993 and one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year three years later.
Kumble was awarded the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honour in 2005.
Vangipurapu Venkata Sai Laxman (born 1 November 1974), 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.
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.
Mohammad Azharuddin (born 8 February 1963) 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 winner in 1986. A member of the Indian National Congress, Azharuddin was an M.P from the Moradabad of Uttar Pradesh.
As a cricketer, he was known for a graceful and fluid batting style - John Woodcock, a noted cricket writer, said of him, "It's no use asking an Englishman to bat like Mohammad Azharuddin. It would be like expecting a greyhound to win the Epsom Derby." He also won praise elsewhere, with umpire Venkataraghavan stating that "Azharuddin had the best wrists in the game" .
'Javagal Srinath (born 31 August 1969) is a former Indian cricketer and current ICC Match Referee. He's considered among India's finest fast bowlers and remains the only Indian fast bowler to have taken more than 300 wickets in ODIs.
He was a frontline fast bowler for the Indian cricket team until his retirement, being the second Indian pace bowler after Kapil Dev to take 200 Test wickets. One ball during the 1996 tour of South Africa measured 156 km/h (97 mph). He took 44 wickets in the 1992, 1996, 1999 and 2003 editions of Cricket World Cups. He is the joint highest wicket taker for India across World Cups, the other being Zaheer Khan who took same number of wickets in 2003, 2007 and 2011 editions.
Mohinder Amarnath Bhardwaj (born 24 September 1950) is a former Indian cricketer (1969–1989) and current cricket analyst. He is commonly known as "Jimmy". He is the son of Lala Amarnath, the first post-independence captain of India. He was the Man of the Series when India won its first World Cup Cricket tournament in England in 1983. Mohinder was seen in the latter part of his career, as the finest Indian batsman against express pace.
Krishnamachari Srikkanth (born 21 December 1959) is a former captain of the Indian cricket team and former chairman of the selection committee. He represented Tamil Nadu in the Indian domestic circuit. He opened the innings partnering Sunil Gavaskar. Known for his aggressive batting style, he was an early role model for opening batsmen in future years to adopt a similar approach to take advantage of fielding restrictions in the initial overs. In the 1983 World Cup final against the West Indies, Srikkanth top scored for India.
He was made the captain of the Indian team in 1989. He was the first Indian player to score a half-century and pick up 5 wickets in an ODI. He achieved this feat against New Zealand at Vishakapatnam in 1988.
Zaheer Khan (born 7 October 1978) is an Indian cricketer who has been a member of the Indian cricket team since 2000. He also played for Worcestershire in County Cricket and plays for Mumbai in Indian domestic cricket. He is currently the second-most successful Indian pace bowler in Test match cricket, behind Kapil Dev.
Zaheer Khan started his domestic career by playing for Baroda. In the early years of his career, Khan was known for his hostile seam and pace bowling, especially fast inch-perfect yorkers. In a bid to improve his bowling, Khan moved to England for a short stint with Worcestershire in 2006. A left-arm fast-medium bowler, Khan is best known for his ability to "move the ball both ways off the wicket and swing the old ball at some pace". Khan continues to excel in reverse swing with the old ball. He is praised for his performances on flat subcontinent pitches and the controlling of different types of cricket balls. He was one of the key members of the 2011 ODI World Cup winning team, leading the pace attack with 21 wickets in just 9 games. In 2011 he was conferred with the Arjuna Award, India's second highest sporting award by the President of India. Khan's career is also noted for recurring injuries, which often interrupted his progress at the international level.
Zaheer Khan was selected as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 2008.
Harbhajan Singh Plaha (born 3 July 1980 in Jalandhar, Punjab, India), commonly known as Harbhajan Singh, is an Indian cricketer and former captain of IPL team Mumbai Indians and Punjab state for the 2012–13 Ranji Trophy season. A specialist bowler, he has the second-highest number of Test wickets by an off spinner, behind Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan. Harbhajan made his Test and One Day International (ODI) debuts in early 1998. His career was initially affected by investigations into the legality of his bowling action, as well as several disciplinary incidents. However in 2001, with leading leg spinner Anil Kumble injured, Harbhajan's career was resuscitated after Indian captain Sourav Ganguly called for his inclusion in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy team. In that series victory over Australia, Harbhajan established himself as the team's leading spinner by taking 32 wickets, becoming the first Indian bowler to take a hat trick in Test cricket.
He was conferred the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honour, in 2009.
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