CWC History: India's best players in each edition from 1975-2015

#2 1979 - Gundappa Viswanath

Gundappa Viswanath was an epitome of grit

Till now, India's worst performance at the World Cup would have been in 1979 where they comprehensively lost all three group games - against eventual champions West Indies, New Zealand, and the then minnows Sri Lanka.

The only memorable performance from the tournament was Gundappa Viswanath's grueling 75 against a rampaging West Indian pace battery in the opening match. He ended up with 106 runs in three matches and was the only player to cross three figures on aggregate.

The tournament exposed India's overdependence on spin bowlers as their failure was pointed out as the biggest reason behind the debacle. A mass restructuring was on the cards - something that led to the team featuring an all-new look for the next edition.

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#3 1983 - Kapil Dev

Probably the greatest Indian ODI innings- Kapil's 175*

Arguably the most unbelievable upset in the history of sports, India shocked the world when they trumped the defending champions, West Indies, in a classic David-Goliath battle to lift the trophy. Being placed in the tougher of the groups and given their tournament history, nobody gave India a cat-in-hell's chance of making it to the knockouts.

However, with victories over West Indies and Zimbabwe, they were off to a flier until the Carribbeans took their revenge and Australia trumped them over. Needing to win both the remaining matches to progress to the semis, all seemed lost for India at 17-5 against a charged Zimbabwe attack, until one man decided to step up.

In perhaps the best counterattacking innings in the history of the game, the captain Kapil Dev led by example, dragging the team to 266, himself scoring an unbeaten 175 off 138 balls, the then highest individual score in ODIs. Galvanized by this, the team did pull off the unthinkable, and rode their luck to the ultimate glory.

Kapil finished with 303 runs at an average of over 60 and strike rate of over 100. He also took 12 wickets with a five-wicket haul and the most number of catches (7), including the match-turning catch of Sir Vivian Richards in the finals. A swashbuckling batsman, a fiery bowler, a hardworking fielder, and a fearless captain - Kapil had it all in him to be the role model of plenty of youngesters to come.