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

From being the game of the elites introduced by the British colonizers to being the de-facto national game, cricket in India has come a long way. From being nothing more than an associate nation to pulling off the biggest upset in the tournament's history and from a shock group stage exit to eventual champions the next year, Team India's journey at the World cups has also been quite unbelievable.

Though a the end of the day it is a team effort, some spectacularly consistent performers have often led by examples in the team's previous challenges. As the 12th edition of the marquee tournament unfolds in about a month, let us take a trip down the memory lane and have a look at the team's best performers in each of the past eleven editions.

#1 1975 - Syed Abid Ali

Syed Abid Ali was always in the shadows of the Indian spin-quartret.

Early followers of the game would remember the maiden edition of the tournament for the dubious innings of Sunil Gavaskar in the opening match, wherein he scored 36 runs off 174 balls when India was chasing 335 against England. Eventually losing the game by 202 runs, India's chances of making into the semifinals were severely hampered by the loss and Gavaskar was lambasted for his slow innings.

Though a weak East Africa team was thrashed in the next match, a loss against New Zealand in the final group game showed them the doors.

Medium pace all-rounder Syed Abid Ali was the team's silent performer, taking two wickets in each of the three games at a meagre economy of 3.2. He also scored a vital 70 in the last game against New Zealand to take the team to a respectable total. His game was more suited for the shorter version of the game but sadly, he faded away into oblivion soon after the tournamnet ended.

#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.

#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.

#3 1987 - Maninder Singh

With the tournament being held in the subcontinent and the matches reduced to 50-over-a-side, India was touted to successfully defend their title. Though they started with an unfortunate one-run loss against the eventual champions, Australia, they were otherwise clinical in their entry to the semis. However, centurion Mike Gatting and the speed-spin duo of Eddie Hemmings and Neil Foster outsmarted the home team into a semifinal exit.

India's star performer in the tournament was Maninder Singh, who picked up 14 wickets, including a 3-fer in the semis. He thoroughly exploited the home conditions as he scalped victims at an average of 20 and a measly economy of 4. Though great things were expected of him, the tournament unfortunately remained the high point in a career that fizzled out too soon.

#4 1992 - Mohammad Azharuddin

Azhar was the poster boy of Indian cricket before the fixing saga

The tournament traveled to down-under in 1992 where India had always been underperformers. The expectations were low and so were the performances where they managed just two wins - against minnows Zimbabwe and the edition's champions Pakistan - in seven matches played.

1992 marked Sachin Tendulkar's arrival on to the big stage, but India's brightest star was Mohammad Azharuddin, who led the team for several years before being banned on charges of match-fixing. In seven innings, he scored a respectable 332 runs with a high score of 93 coming in another closely fought loss against the Aussies.

He returned an average of a shade above 47 and a healthy strike rate of 78 even while batting largely in the earlier stages of the innings.

#5 1996 - Sachin Tendulkar

The one man who could demolish any bowling attack in the world

With the tournament being held in familiar conditions once again, team India was expected to shake off the lukewarm performances in the previous edition with a strong performance. Until the infamous crowd debacle during the semifinals at the Eden Gardens, India did have a fantastic campaign too.

That both the highest runscorer and the highest wicket-taker hailed from the team even while having played one match less highlights the impact India had in the tournament.

Though Anil Kumble's 15 wickets are worth mentioning, the tournament is more memorable for the consistency with which Sachin Tendulkar carried the team forward through all sorts of troubles, highlighting the team's dependency on the little man's shoulders.

He scored a magnificent aggregate of 523 runs, the highest in the tournament history until he himself bettered it two editions later. Two centuries, three half-centuries, a high score of 137 against the eventual winners, Sri Lanka, a stupendous average of 87 were the highlights of his tournament gold-run.

#6 1999 - Rahul Dravid

Dravid's punch through square- a sight to behold

In the tournament that cemented the chokers tag on South Africa and started the era of Australian domination, India crashed out of the super six-stages courtesy the bizarre points system and the defeats to Australia and New Zealand.

The surprise package for the tournament was The Wall, whose selection had previously been criticized as he was a classic Test-mold. However, Rahul Dravid silenced his doubters with Sachin-esque numbers, scoring 461 runs at an average of 66 with two centuries, against the same oppositions - Kenya and Sri Lanka, and three half centuries.

More unbelievable was that he scored them at an uncharacteristic strike rate of 85 even when he had struck a lone six in the entire tournament, etching some lessons on the immortality of classic strokeplay.

#7 2003 - Sachin Tendulkar

The Master Blaster features in the list once again, in India's dreamlike transformation from a meek surrender to the Aussies to surge into the finals, only to stumble upon the same roadblock once again. However, the 2003 World Cup marked that the trio of Tendulkar-Dravid-Ganguly was here to stay and be the face of a resurgent Indian side which was bogged down by the match-fixing wave.

This was Tendulkar's World Cup, as he was head and shoulders ahead of every batsman in terms of the sheer volume of runs, scoring more than 200 runs in excess of the second-placed Indian captain.

With one century against Kenya and six half-centuries in 11 matches, an aggregate of 673 runs, which is still a record, an average of more than 60 and a strike-rate of close to 90, Sachin had performed well in almost every match, except the finals, which ended in yet another heartbreak.

#8 2007 - Virender Sehwag

Sehwag after scoring his century against Bermuda

In arguably India's worst performances ever in the marquee tournament, a dubious drubbing against an amateur Bangladesh side resulted in a notorious group-stage exit for the team.

Marred by controversies like the sacking of Sourav Ganguly as captain and the outlandish coaching etiquettes of Greg Chappel, the atmosphere in the dressing room wasn't reassuring either. An overhaul was due, the one which gave India the most successful leader the tournament has seen - Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Virender Sehwag was the best performer in a forgettable tournament as he contributed in all three matches- two wickets against Bangladesh, a blistering 114 off 89 balls in the landslide victory against the minnows, Bermuda, and a fighting 48 against Sri Lanka in a must-win encounter. He averaged 54 and managed a strike rate of 118, much like any other time during his explosive batsmanship.

#9 2011- Yuvraj Singh

The 28-year wait spanning over two generations reached a beautiful culmination when India lifted the coveted trophy once again at the Wankhede stadium, clinically defeating a persistent Sri Lankan side. Moreover, it was the perfect send-off for a generation of cricketers who infused the fighting spirit into the home-track bullies and Sachin Tendulkar realizing his dream in a record sixth World Cup appearance.

The man of the tournament was the warrior - Yuvraj Singh who delivered stellar performances while fighting his personal battles against cancer. His story of persistence and survival became the beacon of hope for millions suffering from the dreadful disease. Yuvraj lit up the tournament with an all-round performance.

While he scored 362 runs with a century against the Windies and four half-centuries, he also returned 15 wickets with a fifer against Ireland. He boasted of a stupendous average of 90, courtesy his three unbeaten half-centuries against the Netherlands, Ireland, and Australia, the first two coming off successful chases, and a healthy strike rate of 86.

He was also economical in his bowling, with runs given at a shade above 5 per over.

#10 2015 - Mohammad Shami and Umesh Yadav

It was difficult to choose between the two - as they were equally destructive, attacking, and persistent from both sides of the opening bowling, cleaning out opposition lineups in all matches except the lost semifinals.

Travelling Down Under in search of a successful title defense, India stitched together a few gritty performances in a brilliant run in which they steadily sorted out their shortcmings to emerge as solid tournament favorites.

The opening duo was instrumental in those powerful performances. Umesh Yadav returned 18 wickets with two back-to-back 4-fers, in the knockouts whereas Mohammed Shami returned 17 wickets with one four-wicket haul against arch-rivals Pakistan with an average and economy slightly better than Yadav, though both figures were below 5 runs per over, in a tournament that regularly saw 300+ scores being chased down.

For the first time after Kapil's times, India had a team which could be proud of the bowling exploits, as much or even more than their rock-solid batting.

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