Who is the most important player in indian cricket history?

[Tendulkar1996]

Choices -

 

1.Sunil gavaskar -

The pioneer.The first one of India's truly great batsmen.The epitome of the old bombay school of batsmanship.He gave indian batting pride,respect and self confidence when we were minnows.Stood up to all the best fast bowlers without helmet the little man- arguably the greatest test opener ever.He inspired the next generation of batting legends -Tendulkar,laxman and dravid.He started the conveyor belt.With his emergence india started to win test series away from home from 1971.If kohli is the empire builder and tendulkar the counterattacker,gavaskar embodied the resistance.

 

2.Kapil dev -

Another pioneer.He showed the world and india that indians could be fast bowlers.He showed that boys from small towns in india outside of  mumbai and royal family circles may not speak good english but could captain the national team with pride and passion and lead them to ultimate glory.India's greatest ever cricketer in terms of allround ability .He captained the team to India's most important cricketing win in history -83 world cup.A win that triggered a whole generation of cricketers to take up the sport,including the great tendulkar.He played the most important ODI knock in indian cricket history 175* in 1983 knockouts coming in at 17-5.While we found the successors to gavaskar's legacy,we never found another kapil dev.

 

3.Sachin Tendulkar -

The boy that lived up to the hype.The heir to gavaskar's throne and the model for all indian batsmen to follow.Arguably a contender for the GOAT all round batsman.Insane longevity despite numerous bad injuries and insane consistency.And he was divine to watch.For the indian public he became the bhisma pitamah of team india.The one constant that never changed for 2.5 decades.Tendulkar represents an emotion for the indian people because he was a shining light in the dark days of 90s,when we had one of the weakest sides.He gave indians pride,and reflected the ambitions of a rising economy and nation.He was the first true media age superstar,the first one common indians saw on their TVs.

He inspired 3 generations of indian batsmen - from the sehwags and yuvrajs,to kohli and sharmas and in his last stage the gills and shaws.Tendulkar was the one constant in India's transformation from a weak but passionate cricket nation to a cricket superpower.

 

4.Saurav Ganguly -

As a batsman he was good but not great.A great ODI player though.His legacy is his captaincy.He broke the nepotism and regional lobby system to a great extent.He to a large extent created team india by giving oppurtunities to youngsters from the small town -the same players who would become the backbone of a strong indian side for the next 10 years.Yuvraj,zaheer,harbhajan,sehwag,dhoni emerged under his tenure.Under him Indian team started winning abroad,went toe to toe with the mighty aussies and started showing aggression and spirit.He led the foundations for dhoni and the eventual 2011 wc triumph,having fallen one step short in 2003.

 

5.MS Dhoni -

As clutch as they come.Dhoni won everything in limited overs.He won 2 world cups and a champions trophy,brought back the WC after 28 years playing one of the greatest knocks in indian history.His test captaincy was not quite there,but still he took us to number one before the legends declined due to age.Dhoni one of the GOATs of the ODI game,he completely reversed India's attitude regarding chasing.He and yuvraj perfected the art of the chase and it was passed down to kohli.Chasing has now become India's default way of winning ODIs.In the 90s,chasing was one of the most panicky situations for indian batting.Has a following in India second only perhaps to tendulkar,and his legacy still remains unfinished -to be seen at the wc 2019.

 

Take your pick.

 

Edited January 26, 2019 by Tendulkar1996

[Cricketics]

Gambhir.

 

 

[Vilander]

Kapil

[bahubali]

Where is kohli he definitely deserve to be in list.

[velu]

kapil or sachin 

[Nikola]

Cricket became more famous in india because of sachin. I am not talking about sachin the cricketer but he was emotion in 90s and later and that's one of biggest reason for peak of cricket in india.

[Khota]

Very hard to answer that question. The knock by VVS Laxman puts him at the top too.

[Adi BB]

Kapil dev I think 

[Texan]

Ganguly. Seriously?

[Tendulkar1996]

Just now, Texan said:

Ganguly. Seriously?

Title says 'most important' not the greatest.

[BlueBee]

Meant to vote for Kapil but voted for Ganguly lol. Kapil Dev because of the WC83 triumph. That changed Indian Cricket and started the religious following of cricket in India. 

[Gollum]

Gavaskar just above Kapil. As great as Kapil was, it was the former who started our batting culture, greatest Indian cricket tradition and the main reason we achieved success. We were never a bowling nation for most of our history. 

Edited January 26, 2019 by Gollum

[Gollum]

Only 5 choices? Should have included MAK Pataudi, Bedi, Kumble, Dravid and Sehwag to make it 10. Dunno about others but Pataudi makes a compelling case, he set the chain in motion...a pioneer of sorts. 

 

There are better cricketers but from importance perspective these 10 should make the cut in the poll. 

[chewy]

Joginder Sharma, ushered in era of cricket unprecedented in the game, several magnitudes bigger then anything see before

[rtmohanlal]

really difficult to answer ....SG,Kapil,Sachin all 3 are more or less equally important in one way or the other . SG proved that Indians too can be ATG batsmen.Kapil proved that we can have fast bowlers & can win world cups. players like Sachin got inspiration from both.

And the likes of Sehwag,Virat got inspiration from Sachin ....So these 3 are the most influential...

[Zero_Unit]

Sachin easily. Even people who have never picked up a cricket bat has heard of his name once or twice. This guy put indian cricket on the map.

[SRT100]

Rayudu

 

One of the most discussed players of all time on this forum.

 

India win or lose in ODIs and his name is first to be discussed.

[Deleted_User_1]

Dodda Ganesh.

[Straight Drive]

Kapil

 

We have found good replacements of Sunny. Actually there are better ODI batsman than Sunny like Sachin and Kohli. In tests to we had Dravid and Sachin who were nearly as good as Sunny.

 

Whereas all the all rounder we have produced in history of cricket have looked like duplicate Chinese versions of Kapil Dev. Nobody comes close to him in almost 100 years of cricket. To match his performance will remain a dream for next 100 years. Heck none of our all rounders have been as fit as him. They get injured twice every year and miss matches or get drooped. He is unmatchable in aspects other than performance as well. Even specialist batsmen have struggled otott play clutch innings with the batbin precarious situations like Kapil did. His 175 at that strike rate in those years is still unmatched by even the modern Indian specialist batsmen. The all-rounders can only dream about the 175 figure. He won us the WC with his performances in knockouts be it 175 or wickets or that catch of Viv. His 9 wickets is an innings is till the best and it still remains a record in the history of Indian cricket. Indian pacer taking 9 wickets at Ahmedabad  is not a joke. His 7 for in Pakistan was another effort worth matching. Getting even an all-rounder who is 75 percent as good as him will be an achievement. Whereas we have already found equally good or better players to other batsmen.

 

Edited January 27, 2019 by Straight Drive

[Nonbeliever]

For me it's bewda only.  The most positive cricketer and coach india have produced..  and a wonderful commentator too.

 

First coach to win a test series in Australia.

 

Will soon lift the world cup 2019.

 

One of most resilient opening batsman.

GreAt spinner and strategist.  Won mos in 1985 in Australia.

 

Sadly got some bad habbits otherwise only god knows what he could have achieved.

By the way voted for sachin.