In the first part I would do a round up on the openers and fast men. India has never been well endowed in these departments. And that explains why they have been perennial whipping boys of test cricket.
The openers.
Indian cricket has never been well endowed in this area. The list is made up of people who were forced/converted to open.
So my choice of the best openers India had, who would also be serious contenders in an International side would be
Sunil Gavaskar: Unequivocal choice. Would walk into any world XI
Virender Sehwag: Continues to redefine the realms of cricket.
Don't need to say much about these two. The others will need some description.
Vinoo Mankad:
The one half of Second highest ever opening partnership. He was an extremely versatile cricketer. Mankad's best performance was against England at Lord's in 1952. In the first innings he top-scored with 72. During England's first innings, he bowled 73 overs and took 5 wickets for 196 runs. In India's second innings in that Test match, he top-scored again with 184 runs out of India's total of 378. Though England won the game easily, Mankad's all-round performance salvaged India's pride in a series where they were heavily over-matched. Mankad was the first player in more than 30 years to score a 100 and take five wickets in the same Test and the first Indian to achieve this feat.
Navjot Singh Sidhu:This motor mouth would not make most of the teams except India. But such has been the paucity of openers in Indian cricket. He started of a stroke-less wonder, but went on to become a six hitting maniac. His double hundred against West Indies would put most insomniacs to sleep. Many people recount Tendulkar marauding Shane warne in 1997. It is easy to forget that he was already softened by the assault of Sidhu and Laxman.
Gautam Gambhir. I feel its too early to put him on the list of best openers. But he is not doubt better than the most we have had. Played the innings of his life in Napier, Newzealand. Batted 10hrs to help save the test. His true test will be when India visit the Proteas later this year.
There are others like Chetan Chauhan and Wasim Jaffer. Jaffer in particular I felt never lived upto his promise. Chauhan had 10 100+ partnerships for the first wicket with Gavaskar.He scored over 2000 runs but never scored a century. And then there is Krishnamachari Srikanth. A maverick batsman, but with the likes of Sehwag around no way he would make the list.
The Fast Men
The achilles heel of Indian cricket. It has always struggled to field more than one quick bowler in its eleven. Most of them have been the fast medium and slow variety. India have only two genuinely quick bowlers and one of them was known as Tiny. India was not always a pauper in fast bowling. In fact it started off with two excellent apprentices in Shaikh Mohammad Nissar and Ladhabhai Nakum Amar Singh.
Mohammad Nissar was as fast as they come. Indian batsman C.K. Nayudu claimed in his writings that during his first spell, Nissar was faster than Englishman Harold Larwood, who terrorized Australia in 1932 in the infamous Bodyline series. He was a Pashtun leader who migrated to Pakistan post Independence.
Amar Singh was a medium pacer of McGrath variety, who could make the ball shoot of from good length. He was a good batsman too and was the first Indian to complete the all-rounder's double of 1000 runs and 100 wickets in the Ranji Trophy.
Ramakant Desai:
At 5ft 6" he was unusually short for a genuine quick bowler.
He was nick named Tiny. Like other Indian fast bowlers he was overworked. His duels with the legendary Hanif Mohammad make for rather interesting reading.
Kapil Dev:
India's greatest ever all-rounder. He would make any side purely as a bowler. A lovely side on action, he could bowl the banana curve out-swingers. A brilliant athlete and excellent outfielder, his catch of Viv Richards in the 83 world cup finals will be etched in our minds for ever. He also held the record for most no of wickets in test cricket till Walsh took it over from him.
Javagal SrinathHe took over the mantle of India's strike bowler from Kapil Dev. He was quite unlucky and suffered quite a bit from butter fingered Indian slip fielders. He was a real lion heart, and could bowl really fast at times. He is known to have flirted around 150K in the start of his career. He famously puked after knocking over Merrick Pringle. He was a key part of the 2003 world cup campaign. He reinvented himself and was India's leading wicket taker of the tournament.
Zaheer Khan Zaheer Khan burst into the collective consciousness with his yorkers in the ICC knock out trophy of 2000. I still remember watching him bowl to Steve Waugh from my college canteen. He started off well and like most Indian bowlers lost his way. But he has bounced back well and is one of the best bowlers in the world today. Can move the bowl both ways as well as from both sides.
There are a few more I would like to mention like Salim Durrani and Manoj Prabhakar. They were generally chosen in the Indian side because of their all round abilities and not real world beaters as bowlers. I would rather cover them in detail while doing the round up of all rounders. Venkatesh Prasad started well. But then Saeed Anwar and Jayasuriya happened. They combined with captaincy of India's worst ever captain post independence put an end to his career.
