Kapil Dev's debut in International Cricket

Kapil Dev’s debut for India was a decent one and was a sign of things to come in the future. He is regarded as the best fast bowler that India has ever produced. He is still considered as one of the greatest all time all-rounders among the likes of Hadlee, Botham, Sobbers etc. He lead India to the 1983 World Cup triumph which nobody expected. His innings of 175 in the same World Cup against Zimbabwe is considered as one of the best and important knocks for India. He held the record for highest Test wickets with 434 wickets, which was later broken by Courtney Walsh. With the all round abilities he had, he transformed the Indian team in to a competetive unit.

The Haryana Hurricane made his first class debut for Haryana in 1975, from there on his consitent performances along with his pace and bounce made him break in to the Indian team.

Kapil made his debut for India on Oct. 1, 1978 against Pakistan in the first ODI of the series in Pakistan. He couldn’t do much in the match if we go by stats but he played a crucial role in India’s victory He scored an unbeaten 13 coming down the order in 12 balls in a match where India got only 170 runs in 40 overs. Later he also picked up the wicket of Imran Khan in the innings and gave only 27 runs in his 8 overs to script a narrow victory for India by a mere 4 runs. Surinder Amarnath and Chetan Chauhan also made their ODI debuts in that match.

He also made his Test debut on the same tour. Statistically it was not really a great tour for him, but he announced his arrival by displaying some good batting skills and by troubling the Pakistanis with his fast outswingers and bouncers.

Later he scalped 17 wickets in the series against the West Indies and also made his maiden Test century, and then also bowled really well in England to claim 16 wickets. After this Kapil Dev emerged as a hero in the Indian team and was known worldwide for his exploits.

In 131 Tests he scored over 5000 runs and picked up 434 wickets and in ODIs he scored over 3000 runs and picked 253 wickets in the 225 matches he played.