Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli (

pronunciation (helpinfo); born 5 November 1988) is an Indian international cricketer. He

is a right-handed batsman and occasional right-arm medium pace bowler. He is the

current captain of the Indian team in Test cricket and vice-captain in limited overs formats. In
the Indian Premier League (IPL), he captains the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
After representing Delhi at various age-group levels and domestic cricket, Kohli captained India
Under-19s to victory at the 2008 Under-19 World Cup in Malaysia. A few months later, he made
his ODI debut for India against Sri Lanka. Initially having played as a reserve batsman in the Indian
team, he soon established himself as a regular in the middle-order in ODIs. He was part of
the Indian squad that won the 2011 World Cup. Kohli played his first Test in 2011 against the West
Indies at Kingston. By 2013, he shrugged off the tag of "ODI specialist" with Test hundreds in
Australia and South Africa.[2] The same year, he also reached the number one spot in the ICC
rankings for ODI batsmen for the first time.[3] He has also found success in the Twenty20 format,
winning the Man of the Tournament at the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 in Bangladesh. Later that year,
he became the top-ranked T20I batsman in the ICC rankings.[4]
Kohli was appointed the vice-captain of the ODI team in 2012 and has since also captained the team
on several occasions in the absence of regular skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni. After Dhoni's Test
retirement in 2014, Kohli was handed over the Test captaincy. Kohli holds numerous Indian batting
records including the fastest ODI century, the fastest batsman to 5,000 ODI runs and the fastest to
10 ODI centuries. He is only the second batsman in the world to have scored 1,000 or more ODI
runs for four consecutive calendar years.[5] In 2015, he became the fastest batsman in the world to
1,000 runs in T20Is.
Kohli has been the recipient of many awards such as the ICC ODI Player of the Year in 2012 and
the BCCI's international cricketer of the year for the 201112 and 201415 seasons. In 2013, he was
given the Arjuna Award in recognition of his achievements in international cricket. [6]SportsPro, a UK
magazine, rated Kohli as the second most marketable athlete in the world in 2014. [7] He is also a coowner of the ISL team FC Goa and the IPTL franchise UAE Royals.

Gautam Gambhir
Gautam Gambhir (

pronunciation (helpinfo); born 14 October 1981) is

an Indian international cricketer. He is a left-handed opening batsmanwho plays domestic cricket

for Delhi, and captains Kolkata Knight Ridersin the Indian Premier League (IPL). He made his One
Day International(ODI) debut against Bangladesh in 2003, and played his first Test the following year

against Australia. He captained the Indian team in six ODIs from late-2010 to late-2011 with India
winning all six matches. He played an integral part in India's wins in the finals of both the 2007 World
Twenty20 (75 from 54 balls) and the 2011 Cricket World Cup (97 from 122 balls).
Gambhir is the only Indian and one of four international cricketers to have scored five hundreds in
five consecutive Test matches.[1] He is the only Indian batsman to have scored more than 300 runs in
four consecutive Test series. As of February 2014, he is the highest run-scorer for India in Twenty20
Internationals.[2] Under Gambhir's captaincy, the Kolkata Knight Riders won their maiden IPL title in
2012 and again in 2014. Fellow Indian team-mate Virender Sehwag called Gambhir "the best Indian
opener since Sunil Gavaskar".[3]
He was conferred the Arjuna Award, India's second highest sporting award, in the year 2008 by the
President of India.[4] In 2009, he was the number one ranked batsman in ICC Test rankings.[5][6] The
same year, he was the recipient of the ICC Test Player of the Year award.

Rohit Sharma
Rohit Gurunath Sharma (born 30 April 1987) is an Indian cricketer. He is a righthanded batsman and an occasional right-arm off break bowler who plays for Mumbai in domestic
cricket. He is the captain of theMumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League.
Having started his international career at the age of 20, Sharma quickly came to be pegged by many
analysts as a permanent fixture in the Indian cricket team in the next decade. In 2013, he started
playing as an opening batsman for India ODI team, and performed consistently. He scored
consecutive centuries in his first two Test matches against theWest Indies in November 2013,
scoring 177 at the Eden Gardens inKolkata on debut, followed by a score of 111* in the next Test at
theWankhede Stadium in India.[1][2] He played 108 ODIs before playing his maiden Test.
On 13 November 2014, he scored 264 against Sri Lanka at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, which is the
highest individual score in ODIs and thus became the only player in the world to score two doublehundreds in ODIs. Rohit Sharma is the third skipper after MS Dhoni and Gautam Gambhir to lead his
team to the IPL title twice.

Harbhajan Singh
Harbhajan Singh Plaha[1][2][3] (

pronunciation (helpinfo); born 3 July 1980 in Jalandhar, Punjab, India),

commonly known as Harbhajan Singh, is an Indian international cricketer and former captain
of IPL teamMumbai Indians and Punjab state for the 201213 Ranji Trophyseason.[4] A specialist

spin bowler, he has the second-highest number ofTest wickets by an off spinner, behind Sri
Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan. Harbhajan made his Test and One Day International (ODI) debuts in
early 1998. His career was initially affected by investigations into thelegality of his bowling action, as
well as several disciplinary incidents. However, in 2001, with leading leg spinner Anil Kumble injured,
Harbhajan's career was resuscitated after Indian captain Sourav Gangulycalled for his inclusion in
the Border-Gavaskar Trophy team. In that series victory over Australia, Harbhajan established
himself as the team's leading spinner by taking 32 wickets, becoming the first Indian bowler to take
a hat trick in Test cricket.[5]
A finger injury in mid-2003 sidelined him for much of the following year, allowing Kumble to regain his
position as the first choice spinner in Tests and ODI's. Harbhajan reclaimed a regular position in the
team upon his return in late 2004, but often found himself watching from the sidelines in Test
matches outside the Indian subcontinent with typically only one spinner, Kumble, being used.
Throughout 2006 and into early 2007, Harbhajan's accumulation of wickets fell and his bowling
averageincreased, and he was increasingly criticised for bowling defensively with less loop.
Following India's first-round elimination from the 2007 Cricket World Cup, Harbhajan was replaced
by other spinners in the national squad for both formats. He regained a regular position in the team
in late 2007, but became the subject of more controversy. In early 2008, he was given a ban by
the International Cricket Council (ICC) for racially vilifyingAndrew Symonds. The ban was revoked
upon appeal, but in April, Harbhajan was banned from the 2008 Indian Premier League and
suspended from the ODI team by the Board of Control for Cricket in India(BCCI) for
slapping Sreesanth after a match. He appeared in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling's Indian
promotion, Ring Ka King.He was in world cup winning team of 2011 Cricket World Cup.
He was conferred the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honour, in 2009.[6]

Zaheer Khan
aheer Khan (born 7 October 1978) is a former Indian cricketer who was a member of the Indian
national cricket team from 2000 till 2014. He also played for Worcestershire in County Cricket and
plays for Mumbaiand Delhi Daredevils in Indian domestic cricket. He was the second-most
successful Indian pace bowler in Test cricket, behind Kapil Dev.
Khan started his domestic career by playing for Baroda. In the early years of his career, Khan was
known for his hostile seam and pace bowling, especially fast inch-perfect yorkers.[2] In a bid to
improve his bowling, he moved to England for a short stint with Worcestershire in 2006. A leftarm fast-medium bowler, Khan was best known for his ability to "move the ball both ways off the
wicket and swing the old ball at some pace".[3] Khan continues to excel in reverse swing with the old

ball.[4][5]He is praised for his performances on flat subcontinent pitches and the controlling of different
types of cricket balls.[citation needed] He was one of the key members of the 2011 ODI World Cup winning
team, leading the pace attack with 21 wickets in just 9 games. In 2011 he was conferred with
the Arjuna Award, India's second highest sporting award by thePresident of India. Khan's career is
also noted for recurring injuries, which often interrupted his progress at the international level. That is
also the reason Zaheer has set up ProSport Fitness & Services, a special rehab & training center in
association with Adrian Le Roux and Andrew Leipus.
Zaheer Khan was selected as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Yearin 2008. Zaheer Khan
announced his retirement from international cricket in October 2015.

[6]