India’s 1983 World Cup-winning captain and perhaps the greatest all-around cricketer to come out of India, legendary Kapil Dev is celebrating his 63rd birthday on January 6. He was born in Chandigarh in 1959 and made his India Test debut in 1978 and ODI debut in 1979.
At the age of 24, Kapil led an underdog Indian team to World Cup glory in England in 1983, with victories over the might Australian, England, and West Indies cricket teams in the tournament. They defeated two-time defending champions West Indies in the final at Lord’s.
He also captained India to the semi-finals of the 1987 World Cup which was hosted by India and Pakistan jointly.
Kapil Dev had a storied career in which he missed just one Test match, as he was dropped for playing a poor shot in the previous match, which India lost. He was the first batter to hit 4 sixes in 4 consecutive balls in an over in Tests while trying to save the follow-on.
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He took an ODI hat-trick against Sri Lanka in 1991 and ended his career as the highest Test wicket-taker with 434 scalps to his name. His only ODI century- 175* which came against Zimbabwe in the 1983 World Cup, was at that time the highest individual score in ODIs until Viv Richards slammed 189*.
The legend ended his ODI career with 253 wickets in 225 matches with a best of 5/43. He also made 3783 runs in ODIs with one century. In Test matches, Kapil made 5248 runs and picked 434 wickets in 131 matches. His best batting performance was 163. He called time on his career in 1994.
He was also the Indian team’s head coach from 1999-2000 and has dabbled in commentary as well.
Today as he celebrates his 63rd birthday, Kapil Dev received wishes from the Indian cricket fraternity.
Here are some of them:
