GIANTS OF INDIAN CRICKET

1.SUNIL GAVASKAR
Sunil Manohar "Sunny" Gavaskar(born 10 July 1949 in Bombay, Maharashtra), is a former cricketer
who played during the 1970s and 1980s for Bombay and India.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest opening batsmen in test match history,
Gavaskar set world records during his career for the most runs and most 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.
His captaincy of the Indian team, however, was less successful.
The team at one stage went 31 Test matches without a victory.
There were incidents like crowd displeasure at Eden Gardens in Calcutta leading to multiple matches being disrupted,
in response to the poor performance of the Indian team.
Turbulent performances of the team lead to multiple exchanges of captaincy between Gavaskar and Kapil Dev,
with one of Gavaskar's sackings coming just six months before Kapil led India to victory at the 1983 Cricket World Cup.


2.KAPIL DEV
Kapil Dev Ramlal Nikhanj(born 6 January 1959, Chandigarh), better known as Kapil Dev, is a former Indian cricketer.
He captained the Indian cricket team in the 1983 Cricket World Cup, which India won.
Kapil Dev was named by Wisden as the Indian Cricketer of the Century in 2002.
Kapil Dev had a rather prosaic stint as India's national cricket coach for 10 months between October 1999 and August 2000.

Kapil was a right-arm pace bowler noted for his graceful action and potent outswinger,
and was India's main strike bowler through most of his career.
He also developed a fine inswinging yorker during the 1980s which he used very effectively against tail-enders.
As a batsman he was a natural striker of the ball who could hook and drive effectively.
A naturally aggressive player, he often helped India in difficult situations by taking the attack to the opposition.
He was nicknamed The Haryana Hurricane — he represented the Haryana cricket team in domestic cricket.
He retired as India's highest wicket taker in both main formats of the game(Test, as well as ODI) and to date
is the only person to take 400 wickets and score more than 5,000 runs in test cricket.

3.SACHIN TENDULKAR
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar(born April 24, 1973 in Mumbai) is an Indian cricketer widely regarded
as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket.
He is the leading run-scorer and century maker in Test and One Day International cricket.
In 2002, Wisden ranked him the second greatest Test batsman of all time, next to Donald Bradman,
and the second greatest one day international (ODI) batsman of all time, next to Viv Richards.
In September 2007, the Australian leg spinner Shane Warne rated Tendulkar as the greatest player
he has played with or against.Tendulkar was the only player of the current generation to be included
in Bradman's Eleven.[nb 1] He is sometimes referred to as Little Master or Master Blaster.


Tendulkar is the highest run scorer in both Test matches and ODIs, and also the batsman with the most centuries in either form of the game. The first player to score fifty centuries in all international cricket combined, he now has eighty-eight international centuries.

On November 20, 2009, Tendulkar passed runs in international cricket.

On October 17, 2008, when he surpassed Brian Lara's record for the most runs scored in Test Cricket,
he also became the first batsman to score 12,000 runs in that form of the game,having also been the third batsman
and first Indian to pass 11,000 runs in Test cricket.He was also the first player to score 10,000 runs in
one-day internationals, and also the first player to cross every subsequent 1000-run mark that has been crossed
in ODI cricket history. In the fourth Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia,
Tendulkar surpassed Australia's Allan Border to become the player to cross the 50-run mark the most number of times
in Test cricket history, and also the second ever player to score 10 Test centuries against Australia,
after only Sir Jack Hobbs of England more than 70 years back. Tendulkar has been honoured with the Padma Vibhushan award,
India's second highest civilian award, and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, India's highest sporting honour.

4.SAURAV GANGULY

Sourav Chandidas Ganguly(born 8 July 1972) was a former Indian cricketer, and captain of the Indian national team.
He is India's most successful Test captain to date, winning 21 tests out of 49 tests he captained and leading India
into the 2003 World Cup finals.An aggressive captain, Ganguly is credited with having nurtured the careers
of many young players who played under him.

The left-handed Ganguly was a prolific One Day International batsman, with over 11,000 ODI runs to his credit
Despite ODI success, his Test place was often lost to younger players towards the later stages of his career.
On October 7 2008, Ganguly announced that the Test series against Australia starting that month would be his last.
Ganguly played his last first-class match on 21 December 2008.

5.VIRENDER SEHWAG
Virender Sehwag(born 20 October 1978, in Delhi, India),affectionately known as Viru,
is one of the leading batsmen in the Indian cricket team.He was born into a Jat family from Haryana.
Sehwag is an aggressive right-handed opening batsman and an occasional right-arm off-spin bowler.
He played his first One Day International in 1999 and joined the Indian Test cricket team in 2001.
In April 2009, Sehwag became the only Indian to be honored as the Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World for
his performance in 2008.

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 (reached 300 off only 278 balls)
as well as the fastest 250 by any batsman (in 207 balls against Sri Lanka on 3rd December, 2009 at the Brabourne stadium
in Mumbai). Sehwag also holds the distinction of being one of three 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.

Sehwag was appointed as vice-captain of the Indian team under Rahul Dravid in October 2005 but due to poor form,
he was later replaced by V. V. S. Laxman in December 2006 as Test vice-captain.
In January 2007, Sehwag was dropped from the ODI team and later from the Test team as well.
During his term as vice-captain, Sehwag skippered the team in place of injured Dravid in 2 ODIs and 1 Test.
Following his return to form in 2008 and the retirement of Anil Kumble, Sehwag has been reappointed as the vice-captain
for both Tests and ODIs. By early 2009, Sehwag had reestablished himself as one of the best performing batsmen
in ODI cricket.

6.ANIL KUMBLE
Anil Kumble(born 17 October 1970 in Bangalore, Karnataka) is a former Indian cricketer and captain of the Indian
Test cricket team. He is a right-arm leg spin (legbreak googly) bowler and a right-hand batsman.
He is currently the leading wicket-taker for India in both Test and One Day International matches.
At present he is the third highest wicket-taker in Test cricket and one of only three bowlers to have taken
more than 600 Test wickets. Kumble has had success bowling with other spinners,
notably Venkatapathy Raju and Rajesh Chauhan in the 1990s and Harbhajan Singh since2000.
Kumble was appointed the captain of the Indian Test cricket team on 8 November 2007.
His first assignment as captain was the three-test home series against Pakistan that India won 1-0.
Then he led the Indian Test team on its tour to Australia for the 2007-08 four-test series of The Border-Gavaskar Trophy
that India lost 1-2. Kumble succeeded his state team mate Rahul Dravid, who resigned as the captain in September 2007 .
Since his debut in international cricket on 25 April 1990, he has taken 619 Test wickets and 337 ODI wickets.
Although often criticized as not a big turner of the ball, Kumble is the second highest wicket taker among leg spinners
in Test cricket behind leg spinner Shane Warne of Australia and the third of all bowlers after Warne
and off spinner Muttiah Muralitharan of Sri Lanka and has claimed 619 Test wickets.
He is one of only two bowlers in the history of cricket to have taken all 10 wickets in a test innings,
the other being Jim Laker of England.[4] Kumble is currently ranked the 18th best bowler in Tests by the
International Cricket Council[5]. He was awarded the Padma Shri, India's 4th highest civilian honour,
by the Government of India in 2005. After playing for India for 18 years, he announced his retirement on 2 November 2008.
His last match was against Australia at his favourite venue, the Feroz Shah Kotla Ground in Delhi.