Mahendra Singh Dhoni born July 7, 1981 Indian cricketer whose rise to prominence in the early 21st century culminated in his captaincy of the Indian national team that won the one-day Cricket World Cup in 2011. Virat Kholi is the first player in ICC cricket history to win all 3 ICC awards in a single year. Rohit Sharma was born on 30 April 1987 in Bansod, Nagpur, Maharashtra. His mother, Purnima Sharma, is from Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. His father, Gurunath Sharma, worked as a caretaker of a transport firm storehouse. Sharma was raised by his grandparents and uncles in Borivali because of his father's low income. He would visit his parents, who lived in a single-room house in Dombivli, only during weekends. He has a younger brother, Vishal Sharma.

Sachin Tendulkar, in full Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, (born April 24, 1973, Bombay [Mumbai], India), Indian professional cricket player, considered by many to be one of the greatest batsmen of all time. In 2012 he became the first cricketer to score 100 centuries (100 runs in a single innings) in international play. Tendulkar was given his first bat when he was 11 years of age. As a 14-year-old, he used it to score 329 out of a world-record stand of 664 in a school match. A year later he scored a century on his first-class debut for Bombay (Mumbai), and at age 16 years 205 days he became India’s youngest Test (international) cricketer, making his debut against Pakistan in Karachi in November 1989. When he was 18 he scored two centuries in Australia (148 in Sydney and 114 in Perth), and in 1994 he scored 179 against the West Indies. In August 1996, at age 23, Tendulkar was made captain of his country’s team.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni was born on July 7, 1981 Indian cricketer whose rise to prominence in the early 21st century culminated in his captaincy of the Indian national team that won the one-day Cricket World Cup in 2011. He was captain of the Indian national cricket team in limited-overs formats from 2007 to 2017 and in Test cricket from 2008 to 2014. He is a right handed wicket-keeper batsman.He led the team to three ICC trophies including the 2007 ICC World Twenty20, 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup and 2013 ICC Champions Trophy. Under his captaincy, India won the ACC Asia Cup two times, in 2010 and 2016. India also won ICC Test Championship Mace two times in 2010, 2011 and ICC ODI Shield for one time in 2013 under his leadership. He is considered as one of the greatest Captains and Wicket Keeper Batsman of all time.Throughout his 15 year long international career, Dhoni has won several awards and accolades. In Indian domestic cricket he played for Bihar and Jharkhand Cricket team. He is the captain of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the Indian Premier League. He captained the side to championships in the 2010, 2011, 2018 and 2021 editions of IPL league. Also under his captaincy Chennai Super Kings (CSK) Won Champions League T20 two times, in 2010 and 2014.

Virat Kohli is an Indian cricketer who plays for India national cricket team. He was born in Delhi, India on November 5, 1988. Virat is the first player in ICC cricket history to win all 3 ICC awards in a single year- ICC ODI player of the year, ICC Test player of the year and ICC Player of the year award in 2018. He is rated as one of the best batsmen in the world. Virat Kholi is the first player in ICC cricket history to win all 3 ICC awards in a single year. In 2016, he was ranked as one of the world's most famous athletes by ESPN and one of the most valuable athlete brands by Forbes. In 2018, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.In 2020, he was ranked 66th in Forbes list of the top 100 highest-paid athletes in the world for the year 2020 with estimated earnings of over $26 million.

Rohit Sharma was born on 30 April 1987 in Bansod, Nagpur, Maharashtra. His mother, Purnima Sharma, is from Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. His father, Gurunath Sharma, worked as a caretaker of a transport firm storehouse. Sharma was raised by his grandparents and uncles in Borivali because of his father's low income. He would visit his parents, who lived in a single-room house in Dombivli, only during weekends. He has a younger brother, Vishal Sharma.

He is now an Indian international cricketer who is the current captain of the Indian national cricket team. In the Indian Premier League he captains Mumbai Indians and is a right-handed opening batsman, and an occasional right-arm off break bowler. He plays for Mumbai in domestic cricket. In the IPL, the Mumbai Indians have won the tournament a record five times under his leadership.Sharma currently holds the world record for the highest individual score (264) in a one-day international match and is the only player to have scored three double-centuries in one-day internationals. He won the ICC Men's ODI Cricketer of the Year award in 2019 after he scored five centuries in the 2019 World Cup. Sharma has received two national honours, the Arjuna Award in 2015 and the prestigious Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna in 2020.Outside cricket, Sharma is an active supporter of animal welfare campaigns. He is the official Rhino Ambassador for WWF-India and is a member of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). He has worked with PETA in its campaign to raise awareness of the plight of homeless cats and dogs in India.

Yuvraj Singh born on 12 December 1981 is a former Indian international cricketer who played in all formats of the game. He is an all-rounder who batted left-handed in the middle order and bowled slow left-arm orthodox, and is known for his aggressive batting style and all-round ability.

Abraham Benjamin de Villiers is a former South African international cricketer. AB de Villiers was named as the ICC ODI Player of the Year three times during his 15-year international career and was one of the five Wisden cricketers of the decade at the end of 2019. AB de Villiers began his international career as a wicket-keeper-batsman, but he has played most often solely as a batsman. He batted at various positions in the batting order, but predominantly in the middle-order. Regarded as one of the most innovative and destructive batsmen in the modern era, as well as one of the greatest of all time, de Villiers is known for a range of unorthodox shots, particularly behind the wicket-keeper. He made his international debut in a Test match against England in 2004 and first played a One Day International (ODI) in early 2005. His debut in Twenty20 International cricket came in 2006. He scored over 8,000 runs in both Test and ODI cricket and is one of the very few batsmen to have a batting average of over fifty in both forms of the game. In limited overs cricket, he is an attacking player. He holds the record for the fastest ODI century in just 31 balls.

In an Indian team desperately searching for a death overs' bowler, Jasprit Bumrah came to the fore through the Indian Premier League, as a boon for cricket in the country. The scantily-built pacer from Gujarat has managed to perfect the art of bowling inch-perfect yorkers as an understudy to Lasith Malinga as a part of the Mumbai Indians franchise and has grown into an indispensable asset for the Indian team in the limited-overs format.

Krishnakumar Dinesh Karthik (born 1 June 1985) is an Indian professional cricketer & Commentator who nationally plays for the Indian Cricket Team and currently in Indian Premier League playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore. He is also the current captain of the Tamil Nadu cricket team in domestic cricket. He made his debut for the Indian cricket team in 2004. Karthik has become the 4th Indian batsman to play 300 T20 matches.[1]

He made his maiden Test century against Bangladesh and was India's leading scorer in their Test tour of England,[2] helping India win their first series in England in 21 years. After a drop in form in September 2007, Karthik was dropped from the Test team. He has made only sporadic international appearances since then, although he continues to score well domestically. Between 2018 and 2020, he was the captain of IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders. Karthik has also worked occasionally as a commentator/pundit for British channel Sky Sports between 2020 and 2021, most notably during India's tour of England.

Kapil Dev was known for his energetic curved run-up and lethal outswingers as a result of that open-chested action. With the bat, he was an aggressive lower-middle order batsman who could cause carnage with the bat in an era before helmets, monster bats, or T20s. On the field, he was known for his inspirational leadership and athletic fielding. Perhaps the fittest and most disciplined man in the Indian dressing room at the time, Kapil is still remembered for that backward running catch of Sir Vivian Richards. Furthermore, Kapil Dev never missed a Test match due to fitness issues. It would be fair to say that his value to the team lay beyond numbers, but even the stats bow down before him: he remains the only man in the history of the game to have taken 400 wickets and scored more than 5000 runs in Test cricket - making him one of the greatest all-rounders of all time.

Kapil made his debut in 1978 and gradually started to produce performances of substance, especially in Test cricket. In his early years, he came across as a raw talent who was keen on just 'ripping his shoulder off' every ball, and 'tonking the leather off the ball' when he had the bat. The approach saw him score India's fastest Test half-century (off 33 balls) against Pakistan in his very third match. He came of age in the home series against Pakistan in 1979-80, where his all-round performances (32 wickets and 278 runs) helped India win 2 Tests. In the series, he became the youngest player to reach 100 wickets and 1000 runs in Test cricket. For the next two seasons, steady performances with the ball and useful contributions with the bat made him a certainty in the side and a viable candidate for captainship. Perhaps due to the nascent stages of the format or his priorities stacked up in favour of Test cricket, his ODI performances didn't quite live up to his antics in Test cricket.

And then, it happened. Kapil Dev replaced Sunil Gavaskar in the 1982-83 season and was appointed the captain for the 1983 World Cup to be played in England. He played one of the best ODI innings of all time in a must-win match against Zimbabwe at Tunbridge Wells, where India were reeling at 17 for 5. Without any official telecast of the match due to a BBC strike, Kapil strode out and tore apart the Zimbabwean bowling to hammer 175* off 138 balls - a lesson in counter-attacking cricket, and a lesson decades ahead of its time. The scarcely believable knock gave India the momentum which they seized, and went on to win the coveted vessel of victory for the first time, beating the West Indies in the league stages, the hosts in the semi-final, and finally, edging the mighty West Indies yet again in a low-scoring final at Lord's.

At 19, Rishabh Pant has gone through all the highs and lows of a cricketing career. A promising talent from Delhi, Pant came into reckoning after his exploits for India Under-19 in the 2016 World Cup. A dashing left-handed wicket-keeper batsman, he lit up the tournament with a blitzing 24-ball 75, the fastest half-century of the tournament, against Nepal and followed it up with a century against Namibia. India lost the title round - but came back with several positives - nothing bigger than the emergence of Pant.

And then, it happened. Kapil Dev replaced Sunil Gavaskar in the 1982-83 season and was appointed the captain for the 1983 World Cup to be played in England. He played one of the best ODI innings of all time in a must-win match against Zimbabwe at Tunbridge Wells, where India were reeling at 17 for 5. Without any official telecast of the match due to a BBC strike, Kapil strode out and tore apart the Zimbabwean bowling to hammer 175* off 138 balls - a lesson in counter-attacking cricket, and a lesson decades ahead of its time. The scarcely believable knock gave India the momentum which they seized, and went on to win the coveted vessel of victory for the first time, beating the West Indies in the league stages, the hosts in the semi-final, and finally, edging the mighty West Indies yet again in a low-scoring final at Lord's.

##Cheteshwar Arvind Pujara

Cheteshwar Arvind Pujara is an Indian international cricketer who plays Test cricket for India and represents Saurashtra in domestic cricket. He is a right-handed batsman who made his first-class debut for Saurashtra in December 2005 and made his Test debut at Bangalore in October 2010. He was a part of the India A team which toured England in the 2010 summers and was the highest scorer of the tour. In October 2011, the BCCI awarded him a D grade national contract. Known to have a sound technique and the temperament required to play long innings, he was one of the contenders for a spot in the Indian middle order after the retirement of Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman.[3] and was a part of the IPL 2021 winning team Chennai Super Kings.

KL Rahul is among the most highly rated opening batsmen in India's next generation. Rahul was a part of India's squad in the 2010 Under-19 World Cup and made his first-class debut later that year. Having taken a while to establish himself as a first-class cricketer, he enjoyed a breakthrough 2013-14 season, laying the foundation for Karnataka's Ranji Trophy victory with 1033 runs, which included three centuries, three nineties, and a Man-of-the-Match performance in the final.

Rahul attracted plenty of attention at the subsequent IPL auction, and finally went to Sunrisers Hyderabad for Rs. 1 crore (US$ 166,000 approx.). He was a regular member of their side in the 2014 season, mostly as wicketkeeper-batsman, but his contributions with the bat were steady rather than spectacular.

In the long format, however, his technique and application have impressed some of Indian cricket's most respected names. These include Rahul Dravid, with whom Rahul shares not just a name but also a strong rapport, regularly seeking him out for technical and mental advice.

Rahul had a middling tour of Australia with the India A team in July-August 2014, getting starts each time he batted in the unofficial Tests but only managing a top score of 52. But his appetite for runs was back to normal by the time the 2014-15 domestic season began, and twin centuries in the Duleep Trophy final earned him a place in India's Test squad on their tour of Australia.

A profitable IPL in 2016 set him up to make the Indian ODI and T20 squad that toured Zimbabwe in June, where he became the first batsman from his country to score a century on debut in 50-over cricket. Karthik Krishnaswamy

Twenty20 cricket seemingly picked Chris Gayle as its ambassador, for he scored the very first hundred in the format and now uncontestedly owns almost every record there is, including that of the most runs (now 10,000+), most hundreds, fastest hundred, and most fours and sixes.

Chris Gayle might stand tall at over six feet and wield his bat to make or break T20 leagues, but make no mistake about his affinity for Test cricket. His absenteeism from Tests later in his career may seem to suggest otherwise but Gayle has racked up 15 Test hundreds and over 7,000 runs across 103 matches so far, and frequently turns up for his many T20 franchises in jerseys numbered 333 - his highest First Class score, which he made against Sri Lanka at Galle, to become only the fourth batsman after Don Bradman, Brian Lara and Virender Sehwag with two Test triples in a lifetime.

Renowned as one of the most barbarous hitters of the cricket ball ever - he once swung a Brett Lee delivery past the Lord Tennyson school outside Oval! - Gayle dismissed footwork to a famous cricketing redundancy of his time, and along with other contemporary opening batsmen in Tillakaratne Dilshan, Virender Sehwag, and Brendon McCullum later, fashioned a batting era characterized by an unreal dependence on hand-eye coordination and breakneck run-scoring across formats. No wonder he became the first batsman to hit the first ball of a Test match for a six. And it's only fair that he beat Sehwag to become the fastest double centurion in ODIs, minting 215 off 147 in a World Cup game against Zimbabwe in Canberra, 2015.

Hardik Himanshu Pandya is an Indian international cricketer who plays for the Indian national cricket team at the international level and the Baroda cricket team in Indian domestic cricket. He currently captains the newly debuted franchise Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and led them to their maiden IPL title in the 2022 edition. He is an all-rounder who bats right-handed and bowls right-arm fast-medium.

Hardik Pandya was born on 11 October 1993 in Surat, Gujarat. His father, Himanshu Pandya, ran a small car finance business in Surat which he shut down and moved to Vadodara when Hardik was five to provide his sons with better cricket training facilities. Himanshu Pandya worked as Loan agent in Vadodara. He enrolled his two sons into Kiran More's cricket academy in Vadodara. Lacking finances, the Pandya family lived in a rented apartment in Gorwa, with the brothers using a second-hand car to travel to the cricket ground. Hardik studied at the MK High School until ninth grade before dropping out to focus on cricket.

Hardik made steady progress in junior-level cricket, and according to Krunal, "won a lot of matches single-handedly" in club cricket. In an interview with the Indian Express, Hardik revealed that he was dropped from his state age-group teams due to his "attitude problems". He added that he was "just an expressive child" who did not "like to hide his emotions."

Hardik was a leg spinner until the age of 18 and turned to fast bowling at the insistence of the Baroda coach Sanath Kumar.

Shreyas Iyer is an attacking top-order batsman capable of marrying classical shots with brute force. Iyer made headlines when Delhi Daredevils bought him at the 2015 IPL auction for a whopping INR 2.6 crore, and he repaid the faith with interest. Opening the batting, he aggregated 439 runs from 14 matches and went to win the IPL emerging player of the year award. By the end of the 2015-16 season, the hushed whispers calling for him to be fast-tracked to the national side had become a loud chorus as Iyer's career graph took another quantum leap in the Ranji Trophy. He amassed 1321 runs at an average of 73.38, including a century in the final, to help Mumbai storm to their 41st title.

Iyer had come through the Under-19 ranks, hitting back-to-back half-centuries in the playoffs to help India Under-19s finish fifth in the 2014 World Cup in the UAE. Iyer made his first-class debut for Mumbai in 2014-15, and after a lukewarm stint in the middle-order, Iyer was eventually promoted. He finished as the team's leading run-getter with 809 runs at an average of 50.56.

Sanju Viswanath Samson is an Indian International Cricketer who captains Kerala in domestic cricket and Rajasthan Royals in Indian Premier League (IPL). A right-handed top-order batter and wicketkeeper, he was the vice-captain of the Indian U-19 team for the 2014 Under-19 Cricket World Cup.

He made his India debut in the 2015 away T20I against Zimbabwe. He made his ODI debut in 2021 against Sri Lanka.

Sanju started his cricketing career in Delhi and later moved to Kerala in his early teens. After creating waves in junior cricket, he made his first-class debut for Kerala in 2011. He made his IPL debut in 2013 for Rajasthan Royals and won the Emerging Player of the Year. He scored an unbeaten 212 in the 2019-20 Vijay Hazare Trophy in the sixth instance an Indian scored a double-century in List A cricket, which is also the second-fastest double ton in the format.

Dale steyn is an south african international cricketer who plays for the south africa and in ipl for royal challengers banglore.

steyn made his Test debut in 2004, along with a fellow rookie by the name of AB de Villiers, after he impressed Ray Jennings with his raw pace and stamina, in the home series against England after a combined experience of just 7 first-class games. A humbling loss on debut set him back as he picked up just 3 wickets in the game, although it included a ripper of an outswinger to knock over Michael Vaughan in the second innings. After a tally of just 8 wickets in the 3-Test series, Steyn failed to make a significant impact and was dropped from the side.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar Singh (born 5 February 1990) is an Indian international cricketer and a former limited overs vice captain who plays for Uttar Pradesh in domestic first-class cricket and for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League. He is considered to be one of the best swing bowlers in the world. Kumar swings the ball both ways efficiently, with his inswingers more effective than outswing.

He made his international debut in December 2012 against Pakistan in December 2012, taking three wickets in an Twenty20 International. He went on to make his One Day International (ODI) debut in the series which followed. He is the first Indian bowler to take a five-wicket haul in Test cricket, ODIs and T20Is.

Ravindrasinh Anirudhsinh Jadeja (born 6 December 1988), commonly known as Ravindra Jadeja, is an Indian international cricketer. He is an all-rounder, who bats left-handed and bowls left-arm orthodox spin. He was the captain of the Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League. He represents Saurashtra in first-class cricket. He is considered as one of the best fielders in the current decade. Jadeja was vice-captain of the Indian U-19 cricket team that won the World Cup in Malaysia in 2008, under the captaincy of former Indian captain Virat Kohli. He made his ODI debut against Sri Lanka on 8 February 2009 and scored an unbeaten 60 off 77 balls in that match. However, his Test debut came almost four years later, on 13 December 2012, against England at Nagpur.

Shikhar Dhawan (born 5 December 1985) is an Indian cricketer. Being a left-handed opening batsman and occasional captain of the India national cricket team, he plays for Punjab Kings in the Indian Premier League and Delhi in first-class cricket. At the 2013 Champions Trophy, 2015 World Cup, and 2017 Champions Trophy, Dhawan was the leading run-scorer for India.He also became the first player in the history of IPL to score two back-to-back centuries.He was awarded the 'Player of the Tournament' for his exploits in the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy. Dhawan made his One Day International (ODI) debut against Australia in October 2010 at Visakhapatnam. His Test debut came against the same opposition in March 2013 at Mohali, where he scored the fastest century by any batsman on Test debut and ended his innings with 187 runs from 174 balls.

##Mithali Raj Mithali Dorai Raj (born 3 December 1982) is an Indian cricketer and a former captain of the India women's national cricket team from 2004 to 2022. Mithali is the highest run-scorer in women’s international cricket and is considered one of the greatest cricketers of all time. Mithali holds numerous records in international cricket. She is the only female cricketer to surpass the 7,000-run mark in Women's One Day International matches. She is the first player to score seven consecutive 50s in ODIs. She also holds the record for most half-centuries in WODIs. In June 2018, during the 2018 Women's Twenty20 Asia Cup, she became the first player from India, male or female, to score 2000 runs in T20Is, and also became the first woman cricketer to reach 2000 WT20I runs.

Abraham Benjamin de Villiers is a former South African international cricketer. AB de Villiers was named as the ICC ODI Player of the Year three times during his 15-year international career and was one of the five Wisden cricketers of the decade at the end of 2019.

Some cricketers' rise to the top constitutes hours of perseverance and hardwork, and others' include, predominantly, an abundance of talent and natural ability. Abraham Benjamin de Villiers is that player you create in a computer game, who has both the attributes set to maximum, and then some.

de Villiers has risen through the ranks to become one of the world's finest batsmen, most versatile batsmen, across all formats. When on song, de Villiers has the ability to take any bowling attack apart with his wide array of strokes on either side of the wicket. If his orthodoxy is compact and aesthetically pleasing, the South African avant-garde's trailblazing innovation often rendered bowlers speechless.

His supreme ability caught the eye of the selectors as he was fast-tracked into the national squad as a raw 20-year-old in 2004. He made his Test debut in the home series against England in 2004 and exhibited his class with a sublime 52 in just his fourth innings with the bat, saving South Africa from what looked like a certain defeat. He also registered his first Test century in the series - a fluent 109 on his home ground in Centurion. In short, he'd wasted no time and had shown the world his capability immediately.

Having played both as an opener and as a lower-order wicketkeeper/batsman in his first Test series, he soon proved his worth by amassing 460 runs in his first away tour to the Caribbean Islands in 2005. A slump in form ensued - de Villiers battled for runs against Australia both at home and away - he had to wait until the home series against West Indies in 2007-08 to again reach the three-figure mark. However, he made up for the lost time, spanking a fine 217 against India in Ahmedabad, the first South African player to hit a double ton against India.

It was plain sailing later on for the flamboyant right-hander as he scored runs for fun. It included a superb unbeaten 278 against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi in November 2010, briefly placing him at the top of the ladder for the highest individual score by a South African batsman before Amla's 311* at the Oval less than a year later.

de Villiers continued to grow in stature and improved his batting technique such that in addition to having the mainstream attacking game, he developed an impenetrable defence with a karate-style back-and-across trigger movement, and the late-block, which could be extended into the all-important check-drive to counter late movement off the pitch and in the air. This non-committal technique ended up making him one of the finest batsmen of the age. A compact defensive technique to stave off misbehaving balls on a minefield and a plethora of strokes in his armory to thrash the bowlers on truer wickets - AB de Villiers, the batting monster, had arrived.

Nevertheless, as great as things were in terms of individual performances, off-field events often seeped into his game. Following South Africa's exit from the 2011 World Cup, de Villiers was named as the captain of their ODI and T20I team in June. Owing to the workload and pressure, he gave up the T20I captaincy in early 2013 but continued to play as South Africa's main batsman and their first choice wicket-keeper.

Apart from his attacking strokeplay, de Villiers exhibited his ability to play the situation and conditions as well. With South Africa struggling to save the Adelaide Test against Australia during the tour Down Under in 2012-13, de Villiers curbed his natural instincts and dead-batted his way to a 220-ball 33 in one of the more exciting draws of all time, along with his partner-in-crime, Faf du Plessis. In the next Test at the WACA, his alter-ego showed up and he brutalized the red cherry on his way to a brisk 169 from just 184 balls as South Africa ruthlessly triumphed over Australia in their own backyard.

The face of innovation in modern-day cricket, AB's achievements in the limited-overs game are more qualitative than quantitative. Nevertheless, every so often, an innings of such outrageous audacity comes along that the maverick of AB stands out even on a dull, number-loaded scorecard. Ramps over the wicket-keeper, cheeky paddles past short fine or the audacious reverse sweeps and reverse-pulls off fast-bowlers, and countless other never-before-seen stunts have left bowlers, and by extension, even commentators dangerously breathless and short of words. Unquestionably, with his ability to maneuvre the field, his excellent hand-eye co-ordination, and his ability to cause the illusion that the bowler has bowled a poor ball, makes him a revolutionary in the modern game.

Case in point: On January 18, 2015, de Villiers smashed the West Indies bowlers to all corners of Johannesburg (and perhaps a few just about clearing the area code) en route to a record 31-ball 100 against a hapless West Indies line-up, beating the previous best in ODIs by five deliveries. The 44-ball 149 (yes, you read that right) included 9 fours and 16 sixes - it only took him 44 balls to equal Rohit Sharma's record tally of 16 sixes in an ODI. Donning the pink jersey, AB milked the bowlers in an unparalleled display of butchery.

AB de Villiers took 11 catches against Pakistan in Johannesburg in the 2012-13 season, equalling the record for most number of catches by a wicket-keeper in a Test match. He shares the record with former England keeper, Jack Russell. He also scored an unbeaten 103 in South Africa's second innings, becoming the first wicket-keeper to score a century and claim 10 dismissals in a Test. His batting antics coupled with his ability to pull off incredible catches and run-outs, and his cat-like reflexes on the field, make him one of the most valuable players in the modern game.

In December 2013, at the peak of his powers, de Villiers became the ninth batsman to top the batting rankings in both Tests and ODIs. He also had a wonderful three-match Test series against Australia, where he finished as the second highest run-scorer. He continued to do well in both Tests and ODIs and ended 2014 as the second-highest run-getter for South Africa in both formats, behind his team-mate Amla.

Arguably the fastest bowler ever, Brett Lee was a potent weapon in Australia's armoury during their glory days of the 2000s. If facing Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne wasn't threatening enough, opposition batsmen rarely had the luxury of getting of taking a breather as they had to contend with the raw pace of Lee. Masterly with the new ball and equally if not more threatening with the older ball, the New South Wales pacer had every trick in the book which made him a complete fast bowler by all means. Generally, it was the outswinger that was Lee's major trump card although his pace meant that a searing yorker or a whizzing bouncer were always around the corner. A fast bowling great in the ODI format, Lee couldn't quite replicate the same amount of success in Tests although he did finish with over 300 scalps in the longest format. Clearly, injuries also hindered him but even then, he seemed to enjoy the 50-over format more.

Exceptional performances in the U17 and U19 section earned Lee plenty of accolades, scholarships and eventually, a national call up in 1999. It was in the Test squad that he got picked first and he celebrated it with a fifer on debut. He maintained the momentum over the next few Tests with a flurry of wickets at a fantastic average and healthy strike rate to make an emphatic statement to the cricketing world. Lee's Test success had seen him enter into the ODI squad as well and he seamlessly fitted into both the formats for Australia. The new few years saw middling returns in Tests for Lee whose body had started to creak due to his fondness for extreme speed. Injury prone pacers who bowl with high speeds tend to generally cut down on their speeds to prevent mishaps but Lee didn't believe in that theory. He always felt that his USP as a bowler was genuine pace and he wasn't willing to compromise on that part.

Lee's exceptional speeds meant that his variations as a bowler became doubly effective, often foxing the batsmen all ends up with this slower deliveries and off cutters. He had a good repertoire in his arsenal and this was a major reason for his immense success as an ODI bowler. Also, Ricky Ponting's captaincy saw Lee blooming further. Although he mostly played supporting role to McGrath and Gillespie, his steady maturity as a pacer soon made him a gun bowler. Lee enjoyed bowling on the grandest stage of them all - the World Cup where his wicket-taking ability used to be at its peak. He was part of the successive title-winning Australian squads of 2003 and 2007 while also taking part in the 2011 edition where they were eliminated in the quarterfinal. He played on for a year more before calling it quits from all forms of international cricket. A fragile body and an intention to prolong his limited-overs career had earlier forced him to retire from Tests in 2008.

David Warner (born 27 October 1986) is an Australian international cricketer and a former captain of the Australian national team in limited overs format and also a former test vice-captain. A left-handed opening batsman, Warner is the first Australian cricketer in 132 years to be selected for a national team in any format without experience in first-class cricket. He is considered as one of the best batters of the current era. He plays for New South Wales and played for the Sydney Thunder in domestic cricket. He served as the Australian vice-captain across Test and ODI formats of the game between 2015 and 2018.

In January 2017, he became the fourth player to win the Allan Border Medal more than once and also win the award in consecutive years. On 28 September 2017, he played in his 100th ODI and became the first batsman for Australia and 8th batsman overall to score a century in his 100th ODI.

Mohammed Shami[b] (born 3 September 1990) is an Indian international cricketer, who plays for the Indian national cricket team in all formats of the game as a bowler. He plays domestically for Bengal and in the Indian Premier League for Gujarat Titans. He is a right-arm fast bowler, who bowls the ball off the seam and using swing, including reverse swing, to move the ball both ways. Shami made his international debut in a One Day International (ODI) against Pakistan in January 2013, bowling four maiden overs. His Test debut in November 2013 saw him take a five-wicket haul against the West Indies. He is the fastest Indian bowler to take 100 ODI wickets. During the 2019 Cricket World Cup, he became the second Indian bowler to claim a hat-trick in a World Cup match. As of 2022 Shami has an A grade central contract from the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI), the second highest grade of contract.

Sourav Chandidas Ganguly, affectionately known as 'Dada', is an Indian cricket administrator, commentator and former national cricket team captain who is the 39th and current president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

Sourav Ganguly (48) was born on 8 July 1972 in Calcutta (present-day Kolkata), India to Chandidas and Nirupa Ganguly.Sourav Ganguly initially played football as it is the favourite sport for the people of Kolkata but was later attracted to Cricket.He learnt cricket with his brother and despite being right-handed, he learnt to bat left-handed so that he could use his brother's sporting equipment. He scored a century against Orissa Under-15 and went on becoming the captain of St. Xavier's School's cricket team.

In 1989, Sourav Ganguly was selected to play for the Bengal team.After an impressive show in the Ranji Trophy in the 1990-91 season, the left-hander came into the limelight.

In 1992, he made his international debut against West Indies. It was not an ideal start as he could score just 3 runs batting at No. 6 in an ODI at the Gabba, Brisbane. He was dropped immediately due to his as he was perceived to be "arrogant" and his attitude towards the game was openly questioned. He was removed from the team.

He then went back to domestic cricket and worked hard.In the 1995-96 Duleep Trophy, he scored 171 and was called back to the Indian side. He played to the National Team for a tour of England in 1996. For the single ODI, he played but was omitted from the team for the first Test. Later, Sourav Ganguly got a chance to make his Test debut. He scored 136 and became the third batsman in the history to score centuries in the first 2 innings after Lawrence Rowe and Alvin Kallicharran. He had the gift of an immaculate timing and was termed as the "god of the Off side".

After some match-fixing scandal by some of the players of the team in 2000. Sourav Ganguly was named as the Captain of the Indian Cricket Team.another highlight of Sourav Ganguly's career where India beat England in an ODI at Lord's and he swayed his T-shirt from the balcony of the Lord's. It was the response to Andrew Flintoff who swayed his T-shirt at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai.As a captain by 2004, he had achieved significant success and was deemed as India's most successful captain by sections of the media. During his captaincy reign, his individual performance deteriorated especially after the World Cup, the tour of Australia in 2003, and in 2004 the Pakistan series. For the first time since 1969, Australia won a Test series in India.

Sourav Ganguly was awarded the Padma Shri in 2004, India's fourth-highest civilian award, in recognition of his distinguished contribution in the field of sports. In the latter stages, he was doing well consistently and decided to bid adieu to international cricket after being in a form. He retired from international cricket in a Test series against Australia at home in 2008.

In 2008, he was one of the icon players in the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League. He was the captain of the Kolkata Night Riders. Zee Bangla the television channel also appointed him as the host of the reality quiz show titled Dadagiri Unlimited. He was also appointed the chairman of CAB's Cricket Development Committee. In 2019, Sourav Ganguly was elected as the President of the Board of Cricket Control of India. He has been awarded several awards for his outstanding contributions in the field of sports. Some of them are Sports Star Person of the Year, Arjuna Award, CEAT Indian Captain of the Year, Padma Shri 2004, Rammohan Roy Award. On 20 May 2013, the Government of West Bengal honoured Sourav Ganguly with the Banga Bibhushan Award.

Kapil Dev was the greatest pace bowler India has produced, and their greatest fast-bowling allrounder. If he had played at any other time - not when Imran Khan, Ian Botham and Richard Hadlee were contemporaries - he would surely have been recognised as the best allrounder in the world. In any case he did enough to be voted India's Cricketer of the Century during 2002, ahead of Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar. His greatest feats were to lead India almost jauntily, and by his all-round example, to the 1983 World Cup, and to take the world-record aggregate of Test wickets from Hadlee. It was the stamina of the marathon runner that took him finally to 431 wickets and only a yard beyond. He might not have been quite the bowling equal of Imran, Hadlee or Botham at his best, and his strike rate was less than four wickets per Test, but he was still outstanding in his accuracy and ability to swing the ball, usually away from right-handers. And he could hit a ball even more brilliantly than he bowled it, with uncomplicated flair.

Separamadu Lasith Malinga (Sinhala: සෙපරමාදු ලසිත් මාලිංග; born 28 August 1983), nicknamed "Slinga Malinga", is a Sri Lankan former cricketer who is widely regarded as one of the greatest limited overs bowlers of all time.[1][2][3] Malinga captained the Sri Lankan 2014 T20 World Cup winning side and is the only bowler to take 4 wickets in 4 balls twice in international cricket. Malinga is a right-arm fast bowler that is commonly used as a specialist death bowler, and is well known for his distinctive round-arm action, sometimes referred to as a sling action, hence his aforementioned nickname.[4] Malinga announced his retirement from all forms of cricket on 14 September 2021.

Sunil Manohar Gavaskar (born 10 July 1949), is an Indian cricket commentator and former cricketer who represented India and Bombay from 1971 to 1987. Gavaskar is acknowledged as one of the greatest Batsman of all time. 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. However, most of Gavaskar's centuries against West Indies were against their second string team when their four-pronged attack were not playing together.His captaincy of the Indian team, however, was mentioned as less successful despite of team winning the Benson & Hedges World Championship of Cricket in 1985. Turbulent performances of the team led 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.Gavaskar is a recipient of the Indian sports honour of the Arjuna Award and the civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan.He was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2009.In 2012, he was awarded the Col CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award for Cricket in India.

Dayalan Hemalatha (born 29 September 1994) is an Indian cricketer. She is a right-handed batter and bowls right-arm off-break. She plays domestic cricket for Railways, and has previously played for Tamil Nadu and South Zone. In March 2018, she was named in India Women's Women's One Day International (WODI) squad for their series against England Women, but she did not play. She made her WODI debut against Sri Lanka on 11 September 2018.

In October 2018, she was named in India's squad for the 2018 ICC Women's World Twenty20 tournament in the West Indies.She made her Women's Twenty20 International (WT20I) debut against New Zealand on 9 November 2018.

Arshdeep Sigh was born in a Sikh family to Darshan Singh and Baljit Kaur at Guna Madhya Pradesh, where his father was posted in Central Industrial Security Force (CISF). His father worked in CISF for more than 25 years. Later Singh's family shifted to Kharar, near Chandigarh, where Singh now live with his family. Darshan Singh now works as a security head in Groz Beckert Asia inside Industrial Area of Chandigarh. He started playing gully cricket with neighborhood boys and later joined Jaswant Rai's cricket academy, Chandigarh in 2015.

As of 5 October 2022, Arshdeep Singh has played for India under-19, India under-23, Punjab, Punjab kings teams and for Indian men's national cricket team in T20Is.Singh made his List A debut for Punjab in the 2018–19 Vijay Hazare Trophy on 19 September 2018.Prior to his List A debut, he was named in India's squad for the 2018 Under-19 Cricket World Cup.