Sunil Gavaskar is one of the greatest opening batsmen of all times. The former Indian captain had virtually every stroke in the book and preferred solidity before flair for the Indian cricket team.

Sunil Manohar “Sunny” Gavaskar was born on 10 July 1949 in Bombay and proved his skills as a right-hand batsman and right-arm medium pace bowler. Gavaskar made his test debut on 6 March 1971 v West Indies and ODI debut on 13 July 1974 v England. In 125 tests and 108 one-day internationals, Sunil Gavaskar scored 10,122 and 3,092 runs, respectively. His safe catching skills in the slips made him the first Indian (excluding wicket keepers) to take over a hundred catches in Test matches.

Gavaskar was the first to score 10,000 runs and score 34 centuries in the test cricket version; these records were later bettered by Sachin Tendulkar.

In the 1975 World Cup, Gavaskar stunned his own admirers by scoring just 36 (not out) off 174 balls (scoring just one four) in reply to 334 scored by England in 60 years. It was alleged the master batsman deliberately scored poorly after being annoyed with the promotion of Srinivas Venkataraghavan to captaincy. It is believed that Gavaskar was stripped of captaincy due to his proximity with the World Series Cricket when India toured England in 1979 for a four Test tour. However, his cricket skills were always recognized and the cricketer was an important part of the Cricket World Cup 1983 winning squad, led by Kapil Dev.

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Kapil Dev Ramlal Nikhanj, popularly known to the world as Kapil Dev, captained the Indian cricket team which won the 1983 Cricket World Cup. Born on 6 January 1959, Kapil Dev was named by Wisden as the Indian Cricketer of the Century in 2002. This right-arm pace bowler was effectively against tailenders and admired for being a natural striker of the ball who could hook and drive effectively.

Nicknamed The Haryana Hurricane, Dev was the greatest pace bowler India has produced and voted India’s Cricketer of the Century during 2002, ahead of Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar. Dev made his Test cricket debut in Faisalabad, Pakistan on 16 October 1978 and he also became the youngest Test player to achieve the all-round double of 100 Wickets and 1000 Runs and in 25 matches.

His batting skills were admired by the entire world when he scored 175 runs off 138 balls (not out) against Zimbabwe at Nevill Ground, Royal Tunbridge Wells on 18 June 1983 during the 1983 World Cup. India went on to win the World Cup riding on the heroics of Kapil Dev and Mohinder Amarnath. He was cited by umpire Dickie Bird as being one of the greatest all-rounders of all times.

Kapil Dev formally retired in 1993 after breaking the record of Richard Hadle for most Test wickets by taking 434 wickets.

Kapil Dev joined the Indian Territorial Army and was commissioned as a Lieutenant Colonel by General Deepak Kapoor, Chief of the Army Staff on September 24, 2008.

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