Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli was born on 5 November 1988 in Delhi to Prem and Saroj Kohli. He has an elder brother, Vikash, and an elder sister, Bhavna. Kohli attended school at Vishal Bharti and Savier Convent. His father, Prem, worked as a lawyer and died in December 2006. He loves the Aston Martin, Ed Hardy shirts and is the only Indian cricketer with heavily tattooed arms (a Golden Dragon on his forearm is apparently for luck). Virat Kohli is an Indian cricketer. A middle-order batsman, who can also bowl right arm medium pace, Kohli captained the victorious Indian team at the 2008 U/19 Cricket World Cup held in Malaysia, and is the captain of the Royal Challengers Bangalore franchise in the Indian Premier League. He also represents Delhi in first-class cricket and played for the West Delhi Cricket Academy. In One Day International (ODI) cricket, Kohli holds the record for the fastest century by an Indian batsman, and became the fastest to 17 hundreds in ODI by any batsman. He is the fourth batsman in ODIs after Sourav Ganguly (1997-2000), Sachin Tendulkar (1996-98) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (2007–09) to hit 1000 or more ODI runs in three or more consecutive calendar years. He also holds the record for most centuries in chases, with 11 centuries, behind only Sachin Tendulkar. He is the first batsman to make five successive scores of 50 or more in ODIs on two separate occasions. Kohli made his ODI debut in 2008 and was part of the Indian team which won the 2011 World Cup. Despite being a regular in the ODI side, Kohli only played his first Test in 2011 against West Indies in Kingston. But on the disastrous 2011/12 India tour of Australia, in which India's senior batsmen struggled throughout, Kohli stood out, scoring his first Test hundred in Adelaide.
Kohli was the recipient of the ICC ODI Player of the Year award in 2012. SportsPro has rated him the 2nd most marketable athlete in the world. In October 2013, against Australia, Kohli smashed the fastest ODI century by an Indian, the seventh fastest ever. In November 2013, he became the top ranked ODI batsman for the first time. Kohli, also received the Man of the Tournament during the 2014 T20 World Cup in Bangladesh.

Career

The West Delhi Cricket Academy was created in 1998 and Kohli was part of its first intake. Kohli first played for Delhi Under-15 team in October 2002 in the 2002-03 Polly Umrigar Trophy. He was the leading run-getter for his team in that tournament with 172 runs at an average of 34.40. He became the captain of the team for the 2003-04 Polly Umrigar Trophyand scored 390 runs in 5 innings at an average of 78 including two centuries and two fifties. In late-2004, he was selected in the Delhi Under-17 team for the 2003-04 Vijay Merchant Trophy. He scored 470 runs in four matches at an average of 117.50 with two hundreds and top-score of 251*.Delhi Under-17s won the 2004-05 Vijay Merchant Trophy in which Kohli finished as the highest run-scorer with 757 runs from 7 matches at an average of 84.11 with two centuries. In February 2006, he made his List A debut for Delhi against Services but did not get to bat.
In July 2006, Kohli was selected in the India Under-19 squad on its tour of England. He averaged 105 in the three-match ODI series against England Under-19 and 49 in the three-match Test series. India Under-19 went on to win both the series. After the conclusion of the tour, India Under-19 coach Lalchand Rajput was impressed with Kolhi and said, "Kohli showed strong technical skills against both pace and spin".In September, the India Under-19 team toured Pakistan. Kohli averaged 58 in the Test series and 41.66 in the ODI series against Pakistan Under-19s. In October, playing for Delhi Under-19s, he averaged 15 in the Vinoo Mankad Trophy and 72.66 in the Cooch Behar Trophy. He was then picked in the North Zone Under-19 squad for the Vijay Hazare Trophy in which he averaged 28 in two matches.
Kohli made his first-class debut for Delhi against Tamil Nadu in November 2006, at the age of 18, and scored 10 in his debut innings. He came into the spotlight in December when he decided to play for his team against Karnataka on the day after his father's death and went on to score 90. Delhi captain Mithun Manhas said, "That is an act of great commitment to the team and his innings turned out to be crucial. Hats off to his attitude and determination." He scored a total of 257 runs from 6 matches at an average of 36.71 in that season. In April 2007, he made his Twenty20 debut and finished as the highest run-getter for his team in the Inter-State T20 Championship with 179 runs at an average of 35.80. In July–August 2007, the India Under-19 team toured Sri Lanka. In the triangular series against Sri Lanka Under-19s and Bangladesh Under-19s, Kohli was the second highest run-getter with 146 runs from 5 matches. In the two-match Test series that followed, he scored 244 runs at an average of 122 including a hundred and a fifty.
Kohli captained the victorious Indian team at the 2008 U/19 Cricket World Cup held in Malaysia. Batting at number 4, he scored 235 runs in 6 matches at an average of 47, including a century against the West Indies U-19s. He was also commended for making several tactical bowling changes during the tournament. His mother noted that "Virat changed a bit after that day. Overnight he became a much more matured person. He took every match seriously. He hated being on the bench. It's as if his life hinged totally on cricket after that day."
Kohli was instrumental in India's win of the 2009 Emerging Players Tournament in Australia. In the final against South Africa, Kohli scored a century and India went on to win the game by 17 runs. Kohli emerged as the leading run scorer of the tournament, aggregating 398 runs from seven matches including two centuries and two fifties.

Suresh Raina

Raina made his ODI debut in 2005 against Sri Lanka at the age of 18. However, his Test debut came only five years later, in 2010, against the same opposition. He scored a hundred on his Test debut (120). He holds the record for having played the most ODIs before making Test debut. He was a part of India's World Cup winning team of 2011. Suresh Raina is an Indian cricketer. He is an attacking left-handed middle-order batsman and an occasional off-spin bowler. He plays for Uttar Pradesh in all forms of domestic cricket and is the vice-captain of Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League. He has also captained the Indian cricket team and is the second youngest player to captain India. He is only Indian to score a century in all three formats of the game. He is also the highest run-getter and has taken the most catches in the IPL.

Early and personal life

Suresh's father Trilok Chand Raina is a retired military officer. He comes from a Kashmiri Pandit family. The Raina family moved in the 1980s from the Rainawari area of Srinagar, Kashmir, to Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh. He lives in Rajnagar, a town in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. He has 3 older brothers Dinesh Raina, Naresh Raina and Mukesh Raina and 1 elder sister Renu. An article by Suresh Raina was featured in the 2012 book Rahul Dravid: Timeless Steel.

Career

Raina decided to play cricket in 2000, and moved from his city Muradnagar, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh (near New Delhi) to Lucknow, to attend the specialist government Sports College. He rose to become the captain of the Uttar Pradesh U-16s and came to prominence amongst Indian selectors in 2002, when he was selected at the age of 15 and a half years for the U-19 tour to England, where he made a pair of half-centuries in the U-19 Test matches. He toured Sri Lanka later that year with the U-17 team. He made his Ranji Trophy debut for Uttar Pradesh against Assam in February 2003 at the age of 16, but did not play another match until the following season. In late 2003, he toured Pakistan for the U-19 Asian ODI Championship before being selected for the 2004 U-19 World Cup, where he scored three half centuries, including a 90 scored off only 38 balls. He was then awarded a Border-Gavaskar scholarship to train at the Australian Cricket Academy and in early 2005, he made his first-class limited overs debut, and scored 645 runs that season at an average of 53.75. He was selected to participate in the Challenger Series in early 2005, and after injury to Sachin Tendulkar and suspension to captain Sourav Ganguly, Raina was selected for the Indian Oil Cup 2005 in Sri Lanka. 2010 South Africa tour of IndiaIn South Africa's tour to India in 2010, Raina was called in the squad for the second test, but was not selected in the playing XI. He captained the Indian team for the Tri-series against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe as all the other first-choice players were rested from the tournament. India lost the first match under his captaincy against Zimbabwe by six wickets, but won the next match against Sri Lanka. Suresh Raina also captained the Indian Cricket team for the T-20 series against Zimbabwe in June 2010 and India won the 2 match series 2-0.He was the leading run scorer in this series. Virat Kohli and R Ashwin made their T-20 debuts in Raina's captaincy.2010 tour of Sri Lanka:Raina was then brought into the Test squad for the tour of Sri Lanka in July and August 2010. He made his debut in the Second Test after Yuvraj Singh was ill. Sri Lanka made 4/642 declared and India were in trouble at 4/241 when Raina came in to join Sachin Tendulkar. Raina went on to reach a century on debut as the pair put on a double century partnership. Yuvraj recovered in time for the Third Test but the selectors opted to retain Raina. However, due to poor form throughout 2010 (apart from a half century against Australia at Mohali) and a failure to make any impact on the Centurion Test which South Africa won by an innings, he was dropped in favour of rookie Cheteshwar Pujara for the remainder of the series, in which India battled back to a 1–1 draw. 2011 Cricket World Cup: He was on the bench through the first half of the 2011 Cricket World Cup as captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni instead went with the in-form Yusuf Pathan. This remained so until the group game against West Indies, which Raina played in place of an injured Virender Sehwag. Against defending champions Australia in the quarter-final, Dhoni made a strategic change, omitting Yusuf Pathan in favour of Raina. Raina responded by assisting Yuvraj Singh in a successful run chase through high pressure, making 34 from 28 balls to carry India to victory. In the semi-final against Pakistan, he batted with tailenders to score an unbeaten 36, a significant contribution to India's final tally of 260. He also took Younis Khan's catch off of Yuvraj's bowling. Suresh Raina played some crucial knocks in quarter-final and semi-final of the World Cup, which helped India to win the 2011 ICC Cricket worldcup.Gary Kirsten, the then coach of India, said 'Raina won us the World Cup for us with some crucial knocks'. Captaincy and 2011 West Indies tour:India toured West Indies after the World Cup with captain MS Dhoni rested and vice captain Virender Sehwag injured. Gautam Gambhir was named captain for the One dayers and T20's with Raina as his deputy. But due to injury Gambhir was ruled out with Raina captaining with Harbhajan as his deputy. India won the series, but Raina averaged just 16.4. In the Test matches he scored 232 runs at the average of 46.4 scoring crucial fifties in each Test.His captaincy was highly appreciated by former west-Indian legends.2011 tour of England:He was selected for the England tour in July. There was a lot of debate on who should play the first Test at Lord's, Yuvraj or Raina. But a century in a practice match against Somerset sealed a place for him in the playing eleven. Apart from a half-century in the first Test at Lord's, Raina managed just 27 runs from seven innings. He struggled against short bowling and in the final Test was out for a 29-ball duck, the longest in India's Test history. running through a poor form in the Test series especially in the last match made some impact in the 5 match-ODI series though the team was unable to secure a win at all. He top-scored in a rain-affected game at the Lord's scoring a commendable 84 from 75 balls.

Captaincy

in 2011 India toured West Indies after the World Cup with captain MS Dhoni rested and vice captain Virender Sehwag injured. Gautam Gambhir was named captain for the One dayers and T20's with Raina as his deputy. But due to injury Gambhir was ruled out with Raina captaining with Harbhajan as his deputy. India won the series, and his captaincy was highly appreciated by former west-Indian legends. He was again declared captain of the young Indian cricket team during 2014 Bangladesh series in 2014 while all the regular players of Indian cricket were rested. He lead his team for 2-0 victory in the series. His personal performance was also splendid in the low scoring series as he captained the side very aggressively thoroughout the series. He was praised all over the world for his captaincy skills which he displayed during the 2nd ODI of this series.India was allout scoring 104 runs while batting first and Suresh Raina and his young team defended 104 runs and won the match by 54 runs. His captaincy was the deciding factor of this match along with Stuart Binny's bowling performance. Indian Premier League:Raina was signed by the Chennai Super Kings for US$5 million for the first three years of the tournament. Raina made significant contributions in the first edition of the tournament to compensate the Chennai Super Kings over the losses of key players in Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey and Jacob Oram. He played a vital Man of the Match performance in the last league fixture to give Chennai Super Kings the win they required to qualify for the semi-finals. Ultimately the Super Kings finished as the runners-up of the league with Raina with 421 scoring the most runs for them.
Raina found form in the 2009 IPL scoring 434 runs off the 14 games he had played at a strike rate over 140.00.He made a sensational 98 runs from 55 balls (losing his century due to scoring errors) against the Rajasthan Royals at Centurion. He was the fourth leading-run getter of the tournament and second for the Super kings behind Orange-cap holder Matthew Hayden. Raina also became the fifth economical bowler of the tournament taking 7 wickets in all.
Again in 2010 IPL, Raina's consistent batting throughout the series won him applause and became the all-time run-getter of the league surpassing Australian legend Adam Gilchrist halfway down the tournament.He also captained the Super Kings for three matches in skipper Dhoni's absence and took some sensational catches in the field. He scored 520 runs in all, making him the third highest-run getter of the series and the first for Chennai. He also was awarded "best fielder" by the BCCI ahead of the finals. He played a vital half-century which turned the final to Chennai's tide who ultimately went on to become the champions beating the Mumbai Indians.
At the end of the season, Raina set the record for most runs scored in the tournament, with 421, 434, and 520 and also taking the most no. of catches, two records that are still unbroken. Raina also hit the second maximum no. of sixes behind Adam Gilchrist in the three editions of the league. He was retained by the Super Kings for the 2011 Indian Premier League along with Murali Vijay, Albie Morkel and skipper MS Dhoni.

Virender Sehwag

Sehwag holds multiple records including the highest score made by an Indian in Test cricket (319), which was also the fastest triple century in the history of international cricket (reached 300 off only 278 balls) as well as the fastest 250 by any batsman (in 207 balls against Sri Lanka on 3 December 2009 at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai). His other innings of 309 and 293 are also the second and third best by any Indian player. Sehwag also holds the distinction of being one of four batsmen in the world to have ever surpassed 300 twice in Test cricket, and the only one to score two triple centuries and take a five-wicket innings haul. In March 2009, Sehwag smashed the fastest century ever scored by an Indian in ODI cricket, from 60 balls. On 8 December 2011, he hit his maiden double century in ODI cricket, against West Indies, becoming the second batsman after Sachin Tendulkar to reach the landmark. His score remains the highest individual score in ODI cricket – 219 off 149 balls. He is the only player in the world to score a double hundred in ODI and a triple hundred in Test Cricket. Virender Sehwag is an Indian cricketer. An aggressive right-handed opening batsman and a part-time right-arm off-spin bowler, he played his first One Day International in 1999 and joined the Indian Test team in 2001. In April 2009, Sehwag became the only Indian to be honoured as the Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World for his performance in 2008, subsequently becoming the first player of any nationality to retain the award for 2009.
Sehwag was appointed as vice-captain of the Indian team under Rahul Dravid in October 2005 but due to poor form, he was later replaced by V. V. S. Laxman in December 2006 as Test vice-captain. In January 2007, Sehwag was dropped from the ODI team and later from the Test team as well. During his term as vice-captain, Sehwag skippered the team in place of injured Dravid in 2 ODIs and 1 Test. Following his return to form in 2008 and the retirement of Anil Kumble, Sehwag has been reappointed as the vice-captain for both Tests and ODIs. By early 2009, Sehwag had reestablished himself as one of the best performing batsmen in ODI cricket.

Early years

Sehwag was born in a Jat family from Haryana. The son of a grain merchant, Sehwag spent his childhood in a bungalow in a joint family, with siblings, uncles, aunts and sixteen cousins. Though now settled in New Delhi, the Sehwag family hails from Haryana. Sehwag was the third of four children born to father Krishan and mother Krishna Sehwag, with two older sisters Manju and Anju, and younger brother Vinod. His father attributes his interest in cricket to a toy bat which he was given when he was seven months old. He attended Arora Vidya School in Delhi, and pestered his parents to let him play cricket, on the basis that he was not academically gifted. His father tried to end his career when he broke a tooth as a child in 1990, but Sehwag evaded the ban with the help of his mother. Later he attended Jamia Milia Islamia for graduation.

Cricketing career

Early domestic cricket

Sehwag made his debut for Delhi cricket team in first class cricket in the 1997–98 season. He was selected to the North Zone cricket team for the Duleep Trophy the following 1998–99 season, ending fifth in the total runscoring list. The following year he was fourth on the Duleep Trophy run scoring list, including a 274, the highest score of the competition. This was attained against South Zone at Agartala in just 327 balls, and followed a rapid 187 from just 175 in a Ranji Trophy match against Punjab. He was then selected for the U-19 team which toured South Africa. He was seventh in the 2000–01 season with two centuries, but his consistency earned the attention of selectors and he became a regular member of the national team in mid-2001.
Since his international career started, he has continued to play for Delhi in the domestic competition whilst he is not occupied with international duty and has captained North Zone to victory in the Deodhar Trophy in 2004–05 and 2005–06. He also had a short stint with Leicestershire in county cricket in 2003, but a back injury led to a mutual termination of the contract.

ODI career

Sehwag's ODI career started poorly when he scored 1 against Pakistan in Mohali in April 1999 when he fell lbw to Shoaib Akhtar. His bowling performance was also ineffective and expensive, conceding 35 runs off 3 overs. He did not get another chance in the national team for 20 months.
Sehwag was not given another match until the home series against Zimbabwe in December 2000. Sehwag rose to prominence in his fourth ODI match in March 2001 when he scored 58 off 54 balls, against Australia in Bangalore. Combined with his three wickets, he help earn India a victory and was awarded his first man of the match award. He followed this with an unproductive tour of Zimbabwe in mid-2001.
Sehwag had his international breakthrough in Sri Lanka in August 2001 when he was promoted to the opening slot for the tri-series also involving New Zealand. The promotion to open the innings came because regular opener Sachin Tendulkar was absent due to a foot injury. In the match against New Zealand that was to decide the finalist, he scored his maiden century from 69 balls. At the time, the century was the third fastest ODI century for an Indian behind Mohammad Azharuddin's 62 ball effort and Yuvraj singh's 64 ball effort. This was his first score beyond 50 in ten matches and saw him named man of the match. This performance earned him a regular spot in the ODI squad in the middle-order. He bettered his own record by hitting a 60-ball century against New Zealand during the 2009 tour. An innings of note in 2002 was the 22 ball half-century against Kenya in Bloemfontein, tying the second fastest 50 by an Indian. Because of his attacking cricket stroke plays, Sehwag has got many fans, including the WestIndies legend Desmond Haynes, who admitted that he is a great fan of him.
With Ganguly's injury in the India-England ODI Series in January 2002, Sehwag received another opportunity to open the innings which he seized by scoring 82 from 64 balls in Kanpur in an eight-wicket Indian victory. With good performances as opener, Sehwag was made a permanent fixture at the top of the innings. Sachin Tendulkar, who opened in the England ODI series, was moved to middle order – a strategy that reaped dividends for India in 2002 in ODI matches. In the England series and the preceding tour to South Africa, he compiled 426 runs at 42.6 with four half-centuries.

Rahul Dravid

Rahul Dravid is a former Indian cricketer and captain, widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. Born in a Marathi family, he started playing cricket at the age of 12 and later represented the state team at the under-15, under-17 and under-19 levels. Hailed as The Wall, Dravid was named one of the best five cricketers of the year by Wisden Cricketers' Almanack in 2000 and received the Player of the Year and the Test Player of the Year awards at the inaugural ICC awards ceremony in 2004. In December 2011, he became the first non-Australian cricketer to deliver the Bradman Oration in Canberra.
As of October 2012, Dravid is the fourth-highest run scorer in Test cricket, after Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting and Jacques Kallis, and is only the second Indian cricketer, after Tendulkar to score 10,000 runs both in Tests and in ODIs. In 2004, after completing his century against Bangladesh in Chittagong, he became the first and the only player till date to score a century in all the ten Test-playing countries. As of October 2012, he holds the record for the most number of catches taken by a player (non-wicket-keeper) in Test cricket, with 210.
In August 2011, after receiving a surprise call in the ODI series against England, Dravid declared his retirement from ODIs as well as Twenty20 International (T20I), and in March 2012, he announced his retirement from international and first-class cricket. He appeared in the 2012 Indian Premier League as captain of the Rajasthan Royals.
Rahul Dravid, along with Glenn McGrath were honoured during the seventh annual Bradman Awards function in Sydney on 1 November 2012. Dravid has also been honoured with the Padma Bhushan award, India's third highest civilian award.
In 2014, Rahul Dravid joined the GoSports Foundation, Bangalore as a member of their board of advisors. In collaboration with GoSports Foundation he is mentoring India's future Olympians and Paralympians as part of the Rahul Dravid Athlete Mentorship Programme. Indian badmiton player Prannoy Kumar, Para-swimmer Sharath Gayakwad and young Golfer Chikkarangappa S. was part of the initial group of athletes to be mentored by Rahul Dravid.

Early life and introduction to cricket

Dravid was born in a Maharashtrian Deshastha Brahmin family in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. His family later moved to Bangalore, Karnataka, where he was raised. Dravid's father worked for a company that makes jams and preserves, giving rise to the later nickname Jammy. His mother, Pushpa, was a professor of Architecture at the University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE), Bangalore. Dravid has a younger brother named Vijay. He did his schooling at St. Joseph's Boys High School, Bangalore and earned a degree in commerce from St. Joseph's College of Commerce, Bangalore. He was selected to India national cricket team while studying MBA in St Joseph’s College of Business Administration
Dravid started playing cricket at the age of 12, and represented Karnataka at the under-15, the under-17 and the under-19 levels. Former cricketer Keki Tarapore first noticed Dravid's talent while coaching at a summer camp in the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Dravid scored a century for his school team. He also played as wicket-keeper.
Dravid made his Ranji Trophy debut in February 1991, while he was still attending college. Playing alongside future Indian teammates Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath against Maharashtra in Pune, he scored 82 runs in the match, which ended in a draw. His first full season was in 1991–92, when he scored two centuries and finished up with 380 runs at an average of 63.3, getting selected for the South Zone cricket team in the Duleep Trophy.

International career

Dravid made his international debut on 3 April 1996 in an ODI against Sri Lanka in the Singer Cup held in Singapore immediately after the 1996 World Cup replacing Vinod Kambli. He wasn't particularly impressive with the bat scoring just three runs before being dismissed by Muttiah Muralitharan but took two catches in the match. He followed it up with another failure in the next ODI of the series scoring just 4 runs before getting run out against Pakistan.
In contrast to his ODI debut, his Test debut was rather successful one. Dravid was selected for the Indian Test squad touring England on the backdrop of consistent heavy scoring in domestic cricket for 5 years, but didn't get a chance in the First Test despite scoring a fifty each against the Gloucestershire and the Leicestershire county in the tour games. He finally made his debut in Test cricket at Lord's on 20 June 1996 against England in the Second Test of the series. Dravid got the chance to be in the playing XI only because of the ankle injury to senior batsman Sanjay Manjrekar. Coming in to bat at no. 7, he forged important partnerships with another debutante Sourav Ganguly and his Karnataka team mates Kumble and Srinath securing a vital lead for his team in testing conditions. Batting for more than 6 hours, he scored 95 runs, missing out on a landmark debut hundred by just 5 runs, before getting out to the bowling of Chris Lewis. He also took his first catch in Test cricket in this match to dismiss Nasser Hussain off the bowling of Srinath. Dravid managed to hold on to his position in the playing XI in the Third Test despite Manjrekar's return. A hundred against British Universities in the tour game further strengthened Dravid's cause. Eventually Ajay Jadeja was dropped to accommodate Manjrekar in the team. Dravid went on to score 84 runs in the first innings of the Nottingham Test.