10 Indian cricketers who changed the game

India is the financial and emotional centre of world cricket today, but that was not always the case. For decades India was an occasional winner, admired for its spinners and stylish batters but rarely feared. The players below are not simply the ones with the biggest numbers. Each of them changed something lasting — a way of playing, an attitude, or the idea of who could become an Indian cricketer.

1. Sunil Gavaskar: the backbone

Sunil Gavaskar made his debut in the West Indies in 1971 and scored 774 runs in his first series, still a record. More importantly, he spent the next sixteen years facing the most fearsome fast-bowling attacks in history, mostly without a helmet. He was the first batter to reach 10,000 Test runs, and his 34 Test centuries stood as the world record for more than two decades. Gavaskar gave Indian batting a reputation for toughness that it had lacked.

2. Kapil Dev: the turning point

If one day changed Indian cricket, it was 25 June 1983, when Kapil Dev lifted the World Cup at Lord’s. India had won few one-day matches before that tournament, and fast bowling was thought to be unsuited to Indian conditions. Kapil, a fast-bowling all-rounder from Haryana, proved both ideas wrong. The victory turned one-day cricket into a national passion and laid the foundation for the television money that later made Indian cricket so powerful.

3. Sachin Tendulkar: the phenomenon

Sachin Tendulkar debuted at sixteen in 1989 and played for 24 years. His 100 international centuries and his records for most runs in Tests and one-day internationals are well known, but his real impact was cultural. He became India’s first true sporting superstar in the age of satellite television and economic liberalisation, and an entire generation took up the game because of him.

4. Rahul Dravid: the anchor and the architect

Every great batting line-up needs a player who can bat all day. Rahul Dravid did that for sixteen years, scoring more than 13,000 Test runs and taking a record 210 catches. His 180 in the famous 2001 Kolkata Test, alongside V. V. S. Laxman’s 281, turned a certain defeat into one of cricket’s greatest wins. As a coach he built the pipeline of young players that powers India today and guided the team to the 2024 T20 World Cup.

5. Anil Kumble: the match-winner

Anil Kumble did not turn the ball as much as other leg-spinners, but his pace, bounce and accuracy made him lethal. His 619 Test wickets are still the most by an Indian, and in 1999 he took all ten wickets in an innings against Pakistan, a feat achieved only once before. Kumble showed that Indian spin could win matches through relentless pressure as well as guile.

6. Sourav Ganguly: the attitude

When Sourav Ganguly became captain in 2000, Indian cricket was recovering from a match-fixing scandal. He backed young players such as Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh, encouraged them to be aggressive and took India to the 2003 World Cup final. His shirt-waving celebration at Lord’s in 2002 summed up a new, confident India that refused to be intimidated.

7. MS Dhoni: the outsider

MS Dhoni came from Ranchi, far from India’s traditional cricket centres, and became the only captain to win all three ICC white-ball trophies. His calm leadership and finishing ability changed the way India approached tight run chases, and his success with Chennai Super Kings made him the face of the IPL era. Above all, he showed young players from small towns that the path to the top was open to them.

8. Virat Kohli: the standard-setter

Virat Kohli combined extraordinary batting with an obsession with fitness. As Test captain he demanded a squad that could win abroad, and India won a Test series in Australia for the first time under his leadership in 2018–19. In 2023 his 50th one-day century passed Tendulkar’s record. Kohli made aggression and athleticism the norm in Indian cricket.

9. Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet Kaur: the women’s revolution

Mithali Raj scored more one-day international runs than any other woman and kept women’s cricket in India alive through years of neglect. Her successor as the face of the women’s game, Harmanpreet Kaur, hit 171 not out in the 2017 World Cup semi-final, an innings that captured national attention. In 2025 Harmanpreet led India to its first Women’s World Cup title — a moment that may prove as important for women’s cricket as 1983 was for the men’s game.

10. Jasprit Bumrah: the fast-bowling breakthrough

India has always produced great batters and spinners; world-leading fast bowlers have been far rarer. Jasprit Bumrah, with his short run-up and unique action, has been ranked the best bowler in the world and was Player of the Tournament as India won the 2024 T20 World Cup. With Rohit Sharma as captain and Bumrah leading the attack, India finally had a pace bowler other countries feared.

The common thread

Look closely and a pattern emerges. Each of these players expanded what Indian cricket believed was possible — winning abroad, winning with pace, winning from a small town, or winning as a women’s team. That is why their influence will outlast their records.