60 Most Popular Indian Male Players

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar ( born 24 April 1973) is an Indian former international cricketer who served as captain of the Indian national team. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. He is the highest run scorer of all time in International cricket. Considered as the world’s most prolific batsman of all time, he is the only player to have scored one hundred international centuries, the first batsman to score a double century in a One Day International (ODI), the holder of the record for the most runs in both Test and ODI cricket, and the only player to complete more than 30,000 runs in international cricket. In 2013, he was the only Indian cricketer included in an all-time Test World XI named to mark the 150th anniversary of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack. He is affectionately known as Little Master or Master Blaster.Tendulkar took up cricket at the age of eleven, made his Test debut on 15 November 1989 against Pakistan in Karachi at the age of sixteen, and went on to represent Mumbai domestically and India internationally for close to twenty-four years. In 2002, halfway through his career, Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack ranked him the second-greatest Test batsman of all time, behind Don Bradman, and the second-greatest ODI batsman of all time, behind Viv Richards. Later in his career, Tendulkar was a part of the Indian team that won the 2011 World Cup, his first win in six World Cup appearances for India. He had previously been named “Player of the Tournament” at the 2003 edition of the tournament, held in South Africa.
Tendulkar received the Arjuna Award in 1994 for his outstanding sporting achievement, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 1997, India’s highest sporting honour, and the Padma Shri and Padma Vibhushan awards in 1999 and 2008, respectively, India’s fourth- and second-highest civilian awards. After a few hours of his final match on 16 November 2013, the Prime Minister’s Office announced the decision to award him the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award. He is the youngest recipient to date and the first ever sportsperson to receive the award. He also won the 2010 Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for cricketer of the year at the ICC awards. In 2012, Tendulkar was nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India. He was also the first sportsperson and the first person without an aviation background to be awarded the honorary rank of group captain by the Indian Air Force. In 2012, he was named an Honorary Member of the Order of Australia.In 2010, Time magazine included Sachin in its annual Time 100 list as one of the “Most Influential People in the World”.
In December 2012, Tendulkar announced his retirement from ODIs. He retired from Twenty20 cricket in October 2013 and subsequently retired from all forms of cricket on 16 November 2013 after playing his 200th Test match, against the West Indies in Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium. Tendulkar played 664 international cricket matches in total, scoring 34,357 runs.In 2019, Tendulkar was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.

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“7 Interesting Records Held by MS Dhoni in International Cricket”. The Quint. 25 September 2018. Retrieved 27 November 2020.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni ( born 7 July 1981), is a former Indian international cricketer who captained the Indian national team in limited-overs formats from 2007 to 2016 and in Test cricket from 2008 to 2014. Under his captaincy, India won the inaugural 2007 ICC World Twenty20, the 2010 and 2016 Asia Cups, the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup and the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy. A right-handed middle-order batsman and wicket-keeper, Dhoni is one of the highest run scorers in One Day Internationals (ODIs) with more than 10,000 runs scored and is considered an effective “finisher” in limited-overs formats. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wicket-keeper batsmen and captains in the history of the game. He was also the first wicket-keeper to effect 100 stumpings in ODI cricket. Dhoni made his ODI debut on 23 December, 2004 against Bangladesh, and played his first Test a year later against Sri Lanka. He has been the recipient of many awards, including the ICC ODI Player of the Year award in 2008 and 2009 (the first player to win the award twice), the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 2007, the Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian honour, in 2009 and the Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian honour, in 2018. Dhoni was named as the captain of the ICC World Test XI in 2009, 2010 and 2013. He has also been selected a record 8 times in ICC World ODI XI teams, 5 times as captain. The Indian Territorial Army conferred the honorary rank of Lieutenant Colonel to Dhoni on 1 November 2011. He is the second Indian cricketer after Kapil Dev to receive this honour.
Dhoni also holds numerous captaincy records such as the most wins by an Indian captain in ODIs and T20Is, and most back-to-back wins by an Indian captain in ODIs. He took over the ODI captaincy from Rahul Dravid in 2007 and led the team to its first-ever bilateral ODI series wins in Sri Lanka and New Zealand. In June 2013, when India defeated England in the final of the Champions Trophy in England, Dhoni became the first captain to win all three ICC limited-overs trophies (World Cup, Champions Trophy and the World Twenty20). After taking up the Test captaincy in 2008, he led the team to series wins in New Zealand and the West Indies, and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2008, 2010 and 2013. In 2009, Dhoni also led the Indian team to number one position for the first time in the ICC Test rankings.
In 2013, under Dhoni’s captaincy, India became the first team in more than 40 years to whitewash Australia in a Test series. In the Indian Premier League, he captained the Chennai Super Kings to victory at the 2010, 2011 and 2018 seasons, along with wins in the 2010 and 2014 editions of Champions League Twenty20. In 2011, Time magazine included Dhoni in its annual Time 100 list as one of the “Most Influential People in the World.” Dhoni holds the post of Vice-President of India Cements Ltd., after resigning from Air India. India Cements is the owner of the Indian Premier League team Chennai Super Kings, and Dhoni has been its captain since the first IPL season. He announced his retirement from Tests on 30 December 2014.In 2012, SportsPro rated Dhoni as the sixteenth most marketable athlete in the world. He is the co-owner of Indian Super League team Chennaiyin FC. In June 2015, Forbes ranked Dhoni at 23rd in the list of highest paid athletes in the world, estimating his earnings at US$31 million. In 2016, a biopic “M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story” was made on his life and his cricket career up to the Indian team’s win at the 2011 Cricket World Cup.
MS Dhoni announced his retirement from international cricket on 15 August 2020.

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Milkha Singh (birthdate uncertain, between 1929 and 1935), also known as The Flying Sikh, is an Indian former track and field sprinter who was introduced to the sport while serving in the Indian Army. He was the only Indian athlete to win an individual athletics gold medal at a Commonwealth Games until Krishna Poonia won the discus gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games. He also won gold medals in the 1958 and 1962 Asian Games. He represented India in the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome and the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. He was awarded the Padma Shri, India’s fourth-highest civilian honour, in recognition of his sporting achievements.
The race for which Singh is best remembered is his fourth-place finish in the 400 metres final at the 1960 Olympic Games, which he had entered as one of the favourites. He led the race till the 200m mark before easing off, allowing others to pass him. Various records were broken in the race, which required a photo-finish and saw American Otis Davis being declared the winner by one-hundredth of a second over German Carl Kaufmann. Singh’s fourth-place time of 45.73 seconds was the Indian national record for almost 40 years.
From beginnings that saw him orphaned and displaced during the Partition of India, Singh has become a sporting icon in his country. In 2008, journalist Rohit Brijnath described Singh as “The finest athlete India has ever produced”. In July 2012, The Independent said that “India’s most revered Olympian is a gallant loser”.

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Bhaichung Bhutia (born 15 December 1976), also spelled as Baichung Bhutia, is a former Indian professional footballer who played as a striker. Bhutia is considered the torchbearer of Indian football in the international arena. He is often nicknamed the Sikkimese Sniper because of his shooting skills in football. Three-time Indian Player of the Year I. M. Vijayan described Bhutia as “God’s gift to Indian football”.
Bhutia has had four spells at I-League football team East Bengal Club, the club where he started his career. When he joined English club Bury in 1999, he became the first Indian footballer to sign a contract with a European club and only the second to play professionally in Europe, after Mohammed Salim. Afterwards he had a short loan spell at the Malaysian football club Perak FA. As well as this he has played for JCT Mills, which won the league once during his tenure; and Mohun Bagan, which failed to win the league once during his two spells, in his native India. His international footballing honours include winning the Nehru Cup, LG Cup, SAFF Championship three times and the AFC Challenge Cup. He is also India’s second most capped player, with 82 international caps to his name. He is also India’s second youngest international goal scorer after Jerry Zirsanga when he scored his first goal against Uzbekistan in 1995 Nehru cup at the age of 18 years 90 daysOff the field, Bhutia is known for winning the reality television programme Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa, which caused much controversy with his then-club Mohun Bagan, and for being the first Indian athlete to boycott the Olympic torch relay in support of the Tibetan independence movement. Bhutia, who has a football stadium named after him in honour of his contribution to Indian football (first player to have such honour while he is still playing), has also won many awards, such as the Arjuna Award and the Padma Shri.In October 2010, he founded Bhaichung Bhutia Football Schools in Delhi in partnership with football by Carlos Queiroz and Nike. In August 2011, Bhutia announced his retirement from international football. His farewell match was with the India national team on 10 January 2012 against Bayern Munich at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Delhi.

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Pankaj Arjan Advani (born 24 July 1985) is an Indian billiards and snooker player. He is a 23 time world champion. He has won the IBSF World Billiards Championship 15 – times, the World Team Billiards Championship 1 – time, the IBSF World Snooker Championship (15 Reds) 3 – times, (6 Reds) 2 – times, the IBSF World Team Cup 1 – time and the IBSF World Team Championship – 1 time.
Pankaj Advani is the only cueist to have won the Asian and World Championships in all formats of Billiards and Snooker. He has the maximum IBSF world championships in billiards and snooker.
He became a snooker professional in 2012, and his first season on the main tour was the 2012/2013 season. Advani won the 2014 IBSF World 6-Red Snooker Championship, on his debut in that discipline. Advani is also India’s first world champion in 6-red snooker.
In recognition of his achievements, the Government of India has bestowed several awards upon Advani: the Arjuna Award in 2004, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna in 2006, Padma Shri in 2009 and Padma Bhushan in 2018.

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Major Dhyan Chand (29 August 1905 – 3 December 1979) was an Indian field hockey player widely regarded as the greatest in the history of the sport. He was known for his extraordinary goal-scoring feats, in addition to earning three Olympic gold medals, in 1928, 1932 and 1936, during an era where India dominated field hockey. His influence extended beyond these victories, as India won the field hockey event in seven out of eight Olympics from 1928 to 1964.
Known as The Wizard or The Magician of hockey for his superb ball control, Chand played internationally from 1926 to 1949; he scored 570 goals in 185 matches according to his autobiography, Goal. The Government of India awarded Chand India’s third highest civilian honour of Padma Bhushan in 1956. His birthday, 29 August, is celebrated as National Sports Day in India every year.

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Abhinav Bindra (born September 28, 1982) is an Indian businessman and retired sport shooter. He is currently India’s only individual Olympic gold medalist. His gold in the 10-meter air rifle event at the 2008 Summer Olympics was also India’s first Olympic gold medal since 1980. He is the first Indian to have held concurrently the world and Olympic titles for the men’s 10-meter air rifle event, having earned those honors at the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2006 ISSF World Shooting Championships. Bindra has also won nine medals at the Commonwealth Games and three gold medals at the Asian Games.
With more than 150 medals in his 22-year career, he is the recipient of the Padma Bhushan from the Government of India and is one of the top influencers of sport policy in the country.
At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Bindra finished fourth in the finals of the 10-meter air rifle event. He also served as a goodwill ambassador for the Rio 2016 Olympics Indian contingent, having been appointed to that post by the Indian Olympics Association (IOA). On September 5, 2016, he announced his retirement.Bindra’s primary outreach to Indian sports is through the Abhinav Bindra Foundation, a non-profit organization that works to integrate sports, science, and technology into Indian sports and encourage high-performance physical training.
In 2018, Bindra was bestowed with the prestigious Blue Cross, the ISSF’s highest honor. Bindra is also currently a member of the IOC Athletes’ Commission.

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Leander Adrian Paes ( PAYSS; born 17 June 1973) is an Indian professional tennis player. He is widely considered one of the greatest doubles players in the history of the sport. He holds the record for the most doubles wins in the Davis Cup. Paes has won eight doubles and ten mixed doubles Grand Slam titles. He holds a career Grand Slam in men’s doubles and mixed doubles, and achieved the rare men’s doubles/mixed doubles double at the 1999 Wimbledon tournament. His mixed doubles Wimbledon title in 2010 made him the second man (after Rod Laver) to win Wimbledon titles in three decades. Paes received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, India’s highest sporting honor, in 1996–97; the Arjuna Award in 1990; the Padma Shri award in 2001; and India’s third-highest civilian award, the Padma Bhushan prize in January 2014, for his outstanding contribution to tennis in India. He won a bronze medal for India in singles in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. He competed in consecutive Olympics from 1992 to 2016, making him the first Indian and only tennis player to compete at seven Olympic Games.
He is a former Davis Cup team captain, and holds the record for the most Davis Cup doubles wins with 43 victories (surpassing Nicola Pietrangeli’s 42). He plays in World Team Tennis for the Washington Kastles. He was on the 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 championship teams and was named Male MVP for 2009 and 2011 for all of World Team Tennis.He is the sports ambassador of the Indian state of Haryana. Paes has announced that he will retire in 2020, which will be his farewell season on the Pro-circuit.”I want to announce 2020 as my farewell year as a pro tennis player,” Paes wrote in a statement, which he posted on his Twitter handle.

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Sushil Kumar Solanki (born 26 May 1983) is an Indian freestyle wrestler. He was competing in the 66 kg weight division when he won the 2010 world title, a silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics and a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which made him the only Indian (since independence) to win two individual Olympic medals. He carried the Indian flag at the opening ceremony of 2012 London Olympics. His 2008 Olympic medal was second for India in wrestling, and the first since Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav’s bronze medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics. In July 2009, he received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna – India’s highest honour for sportspersons. On 3 October 2010, Kumar handed the Queen’s Baton to Prince Charles in the Queen’s Baton Relay for the 2010 Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony. Sushil won the gold medal in the 74 kg division at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

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Viswanathan Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster and former world chess champion. He became the first grandmaster from India in 1988, and is one of the few players to have surpassed an Elo rating of 2800, a feat he first achieved in 2006. Anand is a five-time world chess champion. He defeated Alexei Shirov in a six-game match to win the 2000 FIDE World Chess Championship, a title he held until 2002. He later became the undisputed World Champion in 2007, and successfully defended his title against Vladimir Kramnik in 2008, Veselin Topalov in 2010, and Boris Gelfand in 2012. In 2013, he lost the title to challenger Magnus Carlsen, and lost a rematch to Carlsen in 2014 after winning the 2014 Candidates Tournament. In April 2006, Anand became the fourth player in history to pass the 2800 Elo mark on the FIDE rating list, after Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik, and Veselin Topalov. He occupied the number one position for 21 months, the sixth longest on record.
Known for his rapid playing speed as a child, Anand earned the sobriquet of “Lightning Kid” during his early career in the 1980s. He has since developed into a universal player, and is considered by many to be the greatest rapid chess player of his generation. He won the FIDE World Rapid Chess Championship in 2003 and 2017, the World Blitz Cup in 2000, and numerous other top-level rapid & blitz events.
Anand was the first recipient of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 1991–92, India’s highest sporting honour. In 2007, he was awarded India’s second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, making him the first sportsperson to receive the award.

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Shiva Thapa (born 8 December 1993) is an Indian boxer. He is employed with Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. He is supported by Olympic Gold Quest and Anglian Medal Hunt Company, Shiva Thapa participated in the 2012 London Olympics, and was the youngest Indian boxer to qualify for the Olympics. Shiva Thapa is ranked 3rd in the bantamweight category in the AIBA Men’s World Ranking. He is the third Indian to clinch Gold at the Asian Games. Shiva Thapa is the third Indian boxer to win a medal at the AIBA World Boxing Championships. He is now an Account Manager with Midland Credit management.

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Syed Modi (1962–1988), born as Syed Mehdi Hassan Zaidi, was an Indian badminton singles player. He was eight-time National Badminton champion (1980–87). His most notable achievement at the international badminton circuit came in the form of men’s singles title at the 1982 Commonwealth Games. He also won three other international titles, namely Austrian International (in 1983 & 1984) and USSR International (in 1985), both of which were European Badminton Circuit tournaments.
Modi’s career was cut short in his prime when he was shot dead on 28 July 1988 in Lucknow as he came out of the K. D. Singh Babu Stadium after a practice session. The murder sent shockwaves through India, especially after the police filed murder charges against Modi’s wife, Ameeta, and her lover (and future husband) Sanjay Sinh.

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Mohammad Azharuddin also known as Azhar or Azzu (among cricket fraternity) is an Indian politician, former cricketer who was the Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha from Moradabad. He was renowned as an elegant middle-order batsman who played 99 tests and 334 one day matches for India. His international playing career came to an end when he was found to be involved in a match-fixing scandal in 2000 and subsequently banned by the BCCI for life. In 2012, the Andhra Pradesh High Court declared the life ban illegal.In 2009, Azharuddin was elected as a member of the Parliament from Moradabad on an Indian National Congress party ticket. In September 2019, Azharuddin was elected as the President of Hyderabad Cricket Association.

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Ravichandran Ashwin ( born 17 September 1986) is an Indian international cricketer. An all-rounder who bats right-handed and bowls right-arm off break, Ashwin plays for Tamil Nadu in domestic cricket and Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League. He is the fastest Indian bowler (also in some records the joint fastest in the world) to reach the 50-, 100-, 150-, 200-, 250-, 300- and 350-wicket mark in Test cricket in terms of number of innings. In 2016, he became the third Indian to win the ICC Cricketer of the Year award.
Having achieved little success as an opening batsman at junior-level cricket, Ashwin dropped down the order and turned into an off-break bowler. He made his first-class debut for Tamil Nadu in December 2006 and captained the team the following season. But it was not until the 2010 Indian Premier League in which he played for the Chennai Super Kings, that he came into the limelight with his economical bowling and earned his maiden international call-up in the limited-overs formats in June 2010. He was the leading wicket-taker and player of the tournament of the 2010 Champions League Twenty20 in South Africa. He was also part of the Indian squad that won the 2011 Cricket World Cup. Later that year, he made his Test debut against West Indies and became the seventh Indian to take a five-wicket haul on Test debut. He took two five-wicket hauls and scored a century in that series and won the player of the series award.
Ashwin continued to succeed in the subcontinent but proved to be less effective in other places like Australia and England. In a home Test series against Australia in 2013, he took 29 wickets, the most by any Indian bowler in a four-match Test series. The same year, he took his 100th Test wicket in his 18th match, becoming the fastest Indian bowler to the milestone and the fastest in the world in over 80 years. In 2017, playing his 45th Test, Ashwin became the fastest bowler to pick up 250 Test wickets, bettering Dennis Lillee, who had achieved the landmark in 48 Tests. In October 2019, in his 66th Test match, Ashwin became the joint-fastest bowler, along with Muttiah Muralitharan, to take his 350th Test wicket.Ashwin is the only bowler in recent times, apart from Sri Lanka’s Ajantha Mendis to bowl the carrom ball. With four centuries in his Test career so far, Ashwin has earned the reputation of being a bowling all-rounder. He was a recipient of the Arjuna Award in 2014 and the BCCI’s international cricketer of the year for the 2012–13 season. He also won the ICC Cricketer of the year 2016 along with ICC Test Cricketer of the year 2016 in December 2016.

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Sunil Chhetri (born 3 August 1984) is an Indian professional footballer who plays as a striker or winger and captains both the Indian Super League side Bengaluru and the Indian national team. Popularly known as Captain Fantastic, having scored the second highest number of goals in international matches among active male players after Cristiano Ronaldo, he is both the most-capped player and all-time top goalscorer for the Indian national team, with 72 goals in 115 appearances. He is the current captain of the national team. Sunil Chhetri was named an ‘Asian Icon’ by AFC on his 34th birthday.Chhetri began his professional career at Mohun Bagan in 2002. He then moved to JCT where he scored 21 goals in 48 games. He signed for the Kansas City Wizards of Major League Soccer in 2010, becoming the third player from the subcontinent of note to go abroad. However, that stint in the United States did not last long and soon he was back in India’s I-League where he played for Chirag United and Mohun Bagan before going back abroad. This time he was signed by Sporting Clube de Portugal of the Primeira Liga where he played for the club’s reserve side.He helped India win the 2007 Nehru Cup, 2009 Nehru Cup, the 2012 Nehru Cup as well as the 2011 SAFF Championship. He was also one of India’s best players during the 2008 AFC Challenge Cup in which India won the tournament and thus qualified for their first AFC Asian Cup in 27 years. He then led India in scoring during their short-lived campaign at the 2011 AFC Asian Cup with two goals. Chhetri has also been named AIFF Player of the Year a record six times in 2007, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2017 and 2018–19.

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Honorary Captain Subedar Major Vijay Kumar Sharma Padma Shri, AVSM, SM (born 19 August 1985) is an Indian sport shooter. He won the silver medal in the individual 25 metre rapid fire pistol event at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Kumar hails from Barsar village of Hamirpur district of Himachal Pradesh and is a retired Subedar Major (Warrant Officer Class I) in the Dogra Regiment (16th Battalion) Indian Army. Vijay Kumar is supported by the Olympic Gold Quest initiative. He has been posted at Indian Army Marksmanship Unit (AMU) Mhow since 2003 where he is being coached by the Russian Pavel Smirnov.

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Rohan Bopanna ( born 4 March 1980) is an Indian professional tennis player. His singles career-high ranking was world No. 213 in 2007 and his career-high ranking in doubles was world No. 3 on 22 July 2013. Recently, most of his appearances in professional tournaments have been in doubles matches. He has been a member of the Indian Davis Cup team since 2002. In 2010, he finished as a runner-up in doubles at the US Open, partnering with Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi. He won the 2017 French Open mixed-doubles title with Gabriela Dabrowski becoming the fourth Indian player to win a Grand Slam title.
Bopanna partnered with Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi in doubles in 2007. The duo, nicknamed the IndoPak Express, went on to win four Challenger titles in quick succession. However, it was only in the 2010 season that the pair broke into the top-ten doubles teams. That year, they reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, finished runners-up in the US Open and in five ATP Tour events, and won the Johannesburg Open.

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Sukant Indukant Kadam (born 9 May 1993) is an Indian professional para-badminton player. Having made his international debut in 2014, he became world number 2 in the SL4 category on 12 June 2017. He won his first title at the Uganda Para-Badminton International 2017. He currently lives in Pune, Maharashtra.

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Cheteshwar Arvind Pujara (born 25 January 1988) is an Indian international cricketer who plays Test cricket for Indian national team and represents Saurashtra in domestic cricket. He is a right-handed batsman who made his first-class debut for Saurashtra in December 2005 and made his Test debut at Bangalore in October 2010. As of December 2019, he is the 7th ranked Test batsman in the world, according to the ICC Player Rankings with a tally of 791 points. He signed a short term contract with Gloucestershire County CC.He was a part of the India A team which toured England in the 2010 summers and was the highest scorer of the tour. In October 2011, the BCCI awarded him a D grade national contract. Known to have a sound technique and the temperament required to play long innings, he was one of the contenders for a spot in the Indian middle order after the retirement of Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman.His Test comeback came against New Zealand in August 2012, scoring a century. He made his first double hundred against England at Ahmedabad in November 2012 and followed up with another double hundred against Australia in March 2013, both the times steering India to victory and becoming man of the match.In the 2012 NKP Salve Challenger Trophy, he was the highest scorer with two centuries and one half-century. He became one of the fastest batsmen to reach 1000 runs in Test cricket in just 11 matches and his 18th Test Innings. He won the Emerging Cricketer of the Year 2013.In February 2017, during the one-off Test match against Bangladesh, he set a new record for the most runs by a batsman in an Indian first-class season, with 1,605 runs. The previous record was 1,604 runs set by Chandu Borde in 1964–65. In November 2017, he scored his twelfth double-century in first-class cricket, the most by an Indian batsman, breaking the previous record set by Vijay Merchant.

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Ravindrasinh Anirudhsinh Jadeja (born 6 December 1988), commonly known as Ravindra Jadeja, is an Indian international cricketer. He is an all-rounder, who plays as a left-handed middle-order batsman and slow left-arm orthodox bowler. He represents Saurashtra in first-class cricket and the Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League.
Jadeja was part of the Indian U-19 cricket team that won the World Cup in Malaysia in 2008 under the captaincy of current Indian Captain Virat Kohli. He made his ODI debut against Sri Lanka on 8 February 2009 and scored an unbeaten 60 off 77 balls in that match. However, his Test debut came almost four years later, on 13 December 2012, against England at Nagpur.
Jadeja was bought for $2 million by the Chennai Super Kings at the 2012 IPL Players Auction. He was bought by the Gujarat Lions in the 2016 IPL Players Auction for ₹9.5 crores after the Chennai Super Kings were banned from the IPL for two seasons. On 22 January 2017, Jadeja became the first Indian left-arm spinner to take 150 One Day International wickets, when he dismissed Sam Billings at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. In March 2017, he became the top ranked bowler in the world leaving behind Ravichandran Ashwin who held that position for a long time.

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Gautam Gambhir ( born 14 October 1981) is an Indian politician and former cricketer, who has played all formats of the game. He is a current member of the Lok Sabha since 2019.
As a cricketer, he was a left-handed opening batsman who played domestic cricket for Delhi, and captained Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Daredevils in 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 runs from 54 balls) and the 2011 Cricket World Cup (97 from 122). Under Gambhir’s captaincy, Kolkata Knight Riders won their first IPL title in 2012 and went on to win the title again in 2014.
Gambhir was the only Indian and one of four international cricketers to have scored hundreds in five consecutive Test matches. He is the only Indian batsman to have scored more than 300 runs in four consecutive Test series. As of April 2018, he is the sixth highest run-scorer for India in Twenty20 Internationals. He was conferred the Arjuna Award, India’s second highest sporting award, in the year 2008 by the President of India. In 2009, he was the number one ranked batsman in ICC Test rankings. The same year, he was the recipient of the ICC Test Player of the Year award. In 2019, he received the Padma Shri from the Government of India, the fourth highest civilian award in India.In October 2018, during the quarter-finals of the 2018–19 Vijay Hazare Trophy, he scored his 10,000th run in List A cricket. In December 2018, he announced his retirement from all forms of cricket.In 2019, he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party and won election to the Lok Sabha from East Delhi.

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Neeraj Chopra VSM (born 24 December 1997) is an Indian track and field athlete who competes in the javelin throw. A Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) in the Indian Army, Chopra is the first track and field athlete to win an Olympic gold medal for India, winning the medal during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the men’s javelin throw.In the 2016 IAAF World U20 Championships, Chopra achieved a world under-20 record of 86.48 m. Debuting at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and the 2018 Asian Games, at which he was the opening flag-bearer, he won gold medals in both Games. In his Olympics debut, Chopra won the gold medal on 7 August 2021 with a throw of 87.58m in his second attempt. He is one of only two Indians to have won an individual Olympic gold medal (alongside Abhinav Bindra), as well as the youngest-ever Indian gold medalist in an individual event and the only one to have won gold in his Olympic debut.

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Vijender Singh Beniwal (born 29 October 1985), is an Indian professional boxer. As an amateur, he won bronze medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, 2009 World Championships and the 2010 Commonwealth Games, as well as silver medals at the 2006 and 2014 Commonwealth Games, all in the middleweight division.In June 2015, Vijender Singh turned professional and signed a multi-year agreement with Queensberry Promotions through IOS Sports and Entertainment. This ruled him out of 2016 Olympics which would have been his fourth.

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Sourav Chandidas Ganguly ( born 8 July 1972), affectionately known as Dada (meaning “elder brother” in Bengali), is an Indian cricket administrator, commentator and former national cricket team captain who is the 39th and current president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. During his playing career, Ganguly established himself as one of the world’s leading batsmen and also one of the most successful captains of the Indian national cricket team. While batting, he was especially prolific through the off side, earning himself the nickname God of the Off Side for his elegant stroke play square of the wicket and through the covers.As a cricketer he played as a left-handed opening batsman and was captain of the Indian national team. He was elected as a president of the BCCI in 2019. and President of the Editorial Board with Wisden India. Before being elected as the President of BCCI, he was the President of Cricket Association of Bengal, governing body for cricket in West Bengal, India.
Ganguly was introduced into the world of cricket by his elder brother, Snehasish. He started his career by playing in state and school teams. After playing in different Indian domestic tournaments, such as the Ranji and Duleep trophies, Ganguly got his big-break while playing for India on their tour of England. He scored 131 runs and cemented his place in the Indian team. Ganguly’s place in the team was assured after successful performances in series against Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Australia, winning the Man of the Match awards. In the 1999 Cricket World Cup, he was involved in a partnership of 318 runs with Rahul Dravid, which remains the highest overall partnership score in the World Cup tournament history.
Due to the match-fixing scandals in 2000 by other players of the team, and for his poor health, Indian captain Sachin Tendulkar resigned his position, and Ganguly was made the captain of the Indian cricket team. He was soon the subject of media criticism after an unsuccessful stint for county side Durham and for taking off his shirt in the final of the 2002 NatWest Series. He led India into the 2003 World Cup final, where they were defeated by Australia. Due to a decrease in individual performance, he was dropped from the team in the following year. He returned to the National team in 2006, and made successful batting displays. Around this time, he became involved in a dispute with Indian team coach Greg Chappell over several misunderstandings. Ganguly was again dropped from the team, however he was selected to play in the 2007 Cricket World Cup. He is regarded as one of India’s most successful captains in modern times, and one of the greatest ODI batsmen of all time. Currently, he is the 8th highest run scorer in One Day Internationals (ODIs) and was the 3rd batsman in history to cross the 10,000 run landmark, after Sachin Tendulkar and Inzamam Ul Haq. In 2002, the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack ranked him the sixth greatest ODI batsman of all time, next to Viv Richards, Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Dean Jones and Michael Bevan.Ganguly joined the Kolkata Knight Riders team as captain for the Indian Premier League Twenty20 cricket tournament in 2008. The same year, after a home Test series against Australia, he announced his retirement from international cricket. He continued to play for the Bengal team and was appointed the chairman of the Cricket Association of Bengal’s Cricket Development Committee. The left-handed Ganguly was a prolific One Day International (ODI) batsman, with over 11,000 ODI runs to his credit. He is one of the most successful Indian Test captains to date, winning 21 out of 49 test matches. Sourav Ganguly is the most successful Indian test captain overseas with 11 wins. The Indian team was ranked eighth in the ICC rankings before he became the captain, and under his tenure the team rank went up to second. An aggressive captain, Ganguly is credited with having nurtured the careers of many young players who played under him, and transforming the Indian team into an aggressive fighting unit.
Along with Harshavardhan Neotia, Sanjiv Goenka, and Utsav Parekh, Ganguly is also the co-owner of Atlético de Kolkata, a franchise of the Indian Super League, which won the inaugural season in 2014.Ganguly was awarded the Padma Shri in 2004, one of India’s highest civilian awards. Ganguly was awarded with the Banga Bibhushan Award from the Government of West Bengal on 20 May 2013.Ganguly is currently a part of the Supreme Court of India appointed Justice Mudgal Committee probe panel for the IPL Spot fixing and betting scandal’s investigations.

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Shikhar Dhawan (born 5 December 1985) is an Indian international cricketer. A left-handed opening batsman and an occasional right-arm off break bowler, he plays for Delhi in first-class cricket and Delhi Capitals in the IPL. He played for the Indian Under-17 and Under-19 teams before making his first-class debut for Delhi in November 2004. At the 2015 World Cup, Dhawan was the leading run-scorer for India and in the following year, became the fastest Indian to reach 3,000 ODI runs. In December 2017, he became the 2nd fastest Indian to reach 4000 ODI runs. Dhawan also holds the record for most runs in a calendar year in Twenty20 International cricket (689). He is known for his successful and crucial knocks in ICC Tournaments. Dhawan made his One Day International (ODI) debut against Australia in October 2010 at Visakhapatnam. His Test debut came against the same opposition in March 2013 at Mohali where he scored the fastest century by any batsman on Test debut and ended his innings with 187 runs from 174 balls. A prolific run-scorer in ICC tournaments, Dhawan top-scored in the 2004 Under-19 World Cup, and the 2013 and 2017 Champions Trophy tournaments, and holds the record for the fastest to reach 1000 runs in ICC ODI tournaments.In August 2013, Dhawan recorded the then-second-highest individual score in a List A match when he scored 248 runs off 150 balls for India A against South Africa A at Pretoria. During the 4th ODI against South Africa in Johannesburg, he became the first Indian and ninth overall to score a century in his 100th ODI game. On 14 June 2018, against Afghanistan, Dhawan became the sixth batsman, and the first for India, to score a century before lunch on day one of a Test.

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Dhanraj Pillay (born 16 July 1968) is a retired Indian field hockey player and former captain of the Indian national team. He is currently working with Air India Ltd. as Deputy General Manager (DGM). He also looks after the Air India Sports Promotion Board as a Joint Secretary based in Mumbai. Since the last 5 years, Dhanraj is overseeing the SAG Hockey Academy in Gujarat funded by the Gujarat Government. A legend of game, he is regarded as one of the best Indian players.Pillay born to a Tamil family made his debut in 1989 with the national team and in a career spanning over 15 years, appeared for India in four Olympic Games, World Cups and Champion Trophies each. He made 339 appearances for the national team and is recorded, unofficially, to have scored 170 goals. He also played for clubs in countries such as Malaysia, France, England and Germany. Recognizing his achievements, he was awarded the Padma Shri by the government of India in 2000.

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Vijay Amritraj (born 14 December 1953) is an Indian sports commentator, occasional actor and former tennis player from Madras. He was awarded the Padma Shri, India’s 4th highest civilian honour, in 1983.

Vijay was born in Madras, India to Maggie Dhairyam and Robert Amritraj. He has two brothers, Anand Amritraj and Ashok Amritraj, who were also international tennis players. He did his schooling from Don Bosco and graduated from Loyola College in Madras.

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Yuvraj Singh (born 12 December 1981) is an Indian former cricketer who played internationally in all formats of the game. An all-rounder who bats left-handed in the middle order and bowls slow left-arm orthodox, Yuvraj is the son of former Indian fast bowler and Punjabi actor Yograj Singh. One of the greatest limited over players to play for India, Yuvraj was particularly noted for his aggressive stroke play of the ball and his fielding.
Yuvraj was a member of the Indian cricket team in One Day Internationals (ODIs) between 2000 and 2017 and played his first Test match in October 2003. He was the vice-captain of the Indian ODI team between 2007 and 2008. He was the Man of the Tournament in the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup, and one of the top performers at the 2007 ICC World T20, both of which India won. In a match against England at the 2007 World T20, he famously hit six sixes in one over bowled by Stuart Broad — a feat performed only three times previously in any form of senior cricket, and never in an international match between two teams with Test match status. In the same match, he set the record for the fastest fifty in Twenty20 Internationals and in all T20 cricket, reaching 50 runs in 12 balls. During the 2011 World Cup, he became the first player to take a 5-wicket haul and score a 50 in the same World Cup match.
In 2011, Yuvraj was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in his left lung and underwent chemotherapy treatment in Boston and Indianapolis. In March 2012, he was discharged from the hospital after completing the third and final cycle of chemotherapy and returned to India in April. He made his international comeback in a Twenty20 match in September against New Zealand shortly before the 2012 World Twenty20.
In 2012, Yuvraj was conferred with the Arjuna Award, India’s second highest sporting award by the Government of India. In 2014, he was awarded the Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian honour. At the 2014 IPL auction Royal Challengers Bangalore bought Yuvraj for an all-time high price of ₹14 crore and, in 2015, the Delhi Daredevils bought him for ₹16 crore making him the most expensive player ever to be sold in the IPL.
On 10 June 2019, Yuvraj announced his retirement from all forms of International cricket. He last represented India in June 2017, against the West Indies.

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Virender Sehwag pronunciation (born 20 October 1978) is a former Indian cricketer. Widely regarded as one of the most destructive batsmen of all time, Sehwag played as an aggressive right-handed opening batsman and also bowled part-time right-arm off-spin. He played his first One Day International in 1999 and joined the Indian test side in 2001. In April 2009, Sehwag became the first 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. He is the former Occasional captain of India, former Vice-Captain of India, former captain of Delhi Daredevils and former captain of Delhi Ranji Team.
Sehwag holds multiple records including the highest score made by an Indian in Test cricket (319 against South Africa at M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai), 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). Sehwag also holds the distinction of being one of four batsmen in the world to have ever surpassed 300 twice in Test cricket. In March 2009, Sehwag smashed what was till then 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 became the highest individual score in ODI cricket—219 off 149 balls which was later bettered by Rohit Sharma—264 off 173 balls on 13 November 2014. He is one of only two players in the world to score a double hundred in ODI and a triple hundred in Test Cricket, the other being Chris Gayle.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 was 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. Sehwag retired from all forms of International cricket on 20 October 2015.Now, he is serving as the member of Anti Doping Appeal Panel of National Anti Doping Agency under Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, Government of India.
On 31 October 2017, Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) honoured Sehwag by naming Gate No.2 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium after him.

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Suresh Raina ( born 27 November 1986) is an former Indian international cricketer. An aggressive left-handed middle-order batsman and an occasional off-spin bowler, he is also regarded as one of the best fielders in world cricket. He plays for Uttar Pradesh in all forms of domestic cricket. He was the captain of the Gujarat Lions in the Indian Premier League, and is the former vice-captain of the Chennai Super Kings. He has also captained the Indian cricket team and is the second-youngest player ever to captain India. He is the first Indian batsman to hit a century in all three formats of international cricket.Raina made his ODI debut in July 2005 against Sri Lanka at the age of 19. However, his Test debut came about five years later, in July 2010, against the same opposition. He scored a hundred on his Test debut. He was a part of the Indian squad that won the 2011 Cricket World Cup.
On 15 August 2020, Raina announced his retirement from all formats of international cricket, though he will continue to play for Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League but pulled off due to personal reasons from IPL 2020.

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Virat Kohli ( born 5 November 1988) is an Indian cricketer and the current captain of the India national team. A right-handed top-order batsman, Kohli is regarded as one of the best contemporary batsmen in the world. He plays for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League (IPL), and has been the team’s captain since 2013. Since October 2017, he has been the top-ranked ODI batsman in the world and is currently 2nd in Test rankings with 886 points. Among Indian batsmen, Kohli has the best ever Test rating (937 points), ODI rating (911 points) and T20I rating (897 points).
Kohli captained India Under-19s to victory at the 2008 Under-19 World Cup in Malaysia. After a few months later, he made his ODI debut for India against Sri Lanka at the age of 19. Initially having played as a reserve batsman in the Indian team, he soon established himself as a regular in the ODI middle-order and was part of the squad that won the 2011 World Cup. He made his Test debut in 2011 and shrugged off the tag of “ODI specialist” by 2013 with Test hundreds in Australia and South Africa. Having reached the number one spot in the ICC rankings for ODI batsmen for the first time in 2013, Kohli also found success in the Twenty20 format, winning the Man of the Tournament twice at the ICC World Twenty20 (in 2014 and 2016).
Kohli was appointed the vice-captain of the ODI team in 2012 and handed over the Test captaincy following Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s Test retirement in 2014. In early 2017, he became the limited-overs captain as well after Dhoni stepped down from the position. In ODIs, Kohli has the second highest number of centuries and the highest number of centuries in run-chases in the world. He holds the world record for being the fastest batsman to 8,000, 9,000, 10,000,11,000 and 12,000 runs in ODI cricket, reaching the milestones in 175, 194, 205 , 222 and 242 innings respectively.
Kohli has been the recipient of many awards such as the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (ICC Cricketer of the Year) in 2017 and 2018; ICC Test Player of the Year 2018; ICC ODI Player of the Year in 2012, 2017 and 2018 and Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World in 2016, 2017 and 2018. He was given the Arjuna Award in 2013, the Padma Shri under the sports category in 2017 and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, the highest sporting honour in India, in 2018. Kohli is ranked as one of the world’s most famous athletes by ESPN and one of the most valuable athlete brands by Forbes. In 2018, Time magazine named Kohli one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2020, Kohli was ranked 66th in Forbes list of the top 100 highest paid athletes in the world for the year 2020 with estimated earnings of $26 million. Virat Kohli is the only cricketer to feature in Forbes.

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Rohit Gurunath Sharma (born 30 April 1987) is an Indian international cricketer who plays for Mumbai in domestic cricket and captains Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League as a right-handed batsman and an occasional right-arm off break bowler. He is the vice-captain of the Indian national team in limited-overs formats. He is one of the most decorated contemporary batsmen in the limited-overs format of the game.
Outside cricket, Sharma is an active supporter of animal welfare campaigns. He is the official Rhino Ambassador for WWF-India and is a member of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). He has worked with PETA in its campaign to raise awareness of the plight of homeless cats and dogs in India.

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Mahesh Shrinivas Bhupathi (born 7 June 1974) is a retired Indian professional tennis player. In 1997, he became the first Indian to win a Grand Slam tournament (with Rika Hiraki). With his win at the Australian Open mixed doubles in 2006, he joined the elite group of eight tennis players who have achieved a career Grand Slam in mixed doubles. He is also the founder of International Premier Tennis League. In December 2016, Bhupathi was appointed as India’s next non-playing Davis Cup captain and took over the reins from Anand Amritraj in February 2017.

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Karun Chandhok (born 19 January 1984) is an Indian racing driver and television presenter who last competed in Formula E for Mahindra Racing. Previously, Chandhok has competed for Hispania Racing in Formula One in 2010. Before this, he drove in the GP2 Series for three years, winning two races. In 2013, Chandhok competed in the FIA GT Series for Seyffarth Motorsport.
Prior to his time in GP2, Chandhok won the Formula Asia championship in 2001 and was the inaugural Formula Asia V6 by Renault champion in 2006. Since leaving F1, Chandhok has served as an analyst, co-commentator and pit-lane reporter for a variety of British broadcasters. He is currently working for Sky Sports F1.

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Yogeshwar Dutt (born 2 November 1982) is an Indian freestyle wrestler. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, he won the bronze medal in the 60 kg category. He was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2013. He won a gold medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

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Harbhajan Singh Plaha (born 3 July 1980 in Jalandhar, Punjab, India), commonly known as Harbhajan or simply Bhajji or Bhajju Pa, is a former Indian international cricketer, who plays all forms of the game cricket. A specialist spin bowler, he has the second-highest number of Test wickets by an off spinner, behind Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan.
He was the captain of IPL team Mumbai Indians and Punjab for the 2012–13 Ranji Trophy season.
Under his captaincy, Mumbai Indians won 2011 Champions League Twenty20
Singh made his Test and One Day International (ODI) debuts in early 1998. His career was initially affected by investigations into the legality 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 Ganguly called 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. He is also an Officer in the Punjab Police and has held the rank of a Superintendent of police (India), reporting to Punjab Police HQ at Barnala.
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 ODIs. 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 average increased, 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 vilifying Andrew 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 the World Cup-winning team of 2011 Cricket World Cup.
He was conferred the Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian honour, in 2009.

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Jasprit Jasbirsingh Bumrah (born 6 December 1993) is an Indian international cricketer who plays for the Indian national cricket team in all formats of the game. After a couple of moderately successful seasons with the Mumbai Indians at the Indian Premier League, and with his domestic team Gujarat, he was named in India’s squad for its 2015–16 series against Australia, as a replacement to an injured Bhuvneshwar Kumar. He consequently made his debut in One Day Internationals & Twenty20 Internationals in 2015–16 series against Australia. He is the first Asian bowler to take 5 wickets in a test innings in South Africa, England and Australia during the same calendar year. He is also tḥe third highest wicket taker in test matches in a debut year with 48 wickets in 8 matches.

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Norman Gilbert Pritchard (23 June 1875 – 30 October 1929), also known by his stage name Norman Trevor, was a British-Indian athlete and actor who became the first Asian-born athlete to win an Olympic medal when he won two silver medals in athletics at the 1900 Paris Olympics representing India. He was of British ethnicity and moved to Great Britain permanently in 1905, where he became a successful stage actor, and later moved to the United States to work in Hollywood.

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Rahul Sharad Dravid ( born 11 January 1973) is a former Indian cricketer. He is the Director of Cricket Operations at National Cricket Academy, Bengaluru, India. He also monitors the progress of India A and India under-19 cricket teams. Before this he was Head Coach for the India Under-19 and India A teams from 2016 to 2019. Under his coaching, under-19 team was runners up at 2016 u-19 Cricket World Cup and were winners at 2018 u-19 Cricket World Cup. In 2019, BCCI appointed Dravid as Head of NCA.
Known for his sound batting technique,
Dravid has scored nearly 25,000 runs in international cricket and is widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. He is colloquially known as Dependable or Mr. Dependable, and often referred to as The Great Wall or The Wall by Indian cricket followers.Born in a Marathi family and brought up in Bangalore, he started playing cricket at the age of 12 and later represented Karnataka 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 December 2016, Dravid is the fourth-highest run scorer in Test cricket, after Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting and Jacques Kallis. In 2004, after completing his century against Bangladesh in Chittagong, he became the first player to score a century in all the ten Test-playing countries. As of October 2012, he holds the record for the most catches taken by a player (non-wicket-keeper) in Test cricket, with 210. Dravid holds a unique record of never getting out for a Golden duck in the 286 Test innings which he has played. He has faced 31258 balls, which is the highest number of balls faced by any player in test cricket. He has also spent 44152 minutes at the crease, which is the highest time spent on crease by any player in test cricket.In August 2011, after receiving a surprise recall 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 Shri and the Padma Bhushan award, India’s fourth and third highest civilian awards respectively.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 badminton player Prannoy Kumar, Para-swimmer Sharath Gayakwad and young Golfer S. Chikkarangappa was part of the initial group of athletes to be mentored by Rahul Dravid. In July 2018, Dravid became the fifth Indian cricketer to be inducted into ICC Hall of Fame.

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Prakash Padukone (born 10 June 1955) is a former Indian badminton player. He was ranked World No. 1 in 1980; the same year he became the first Indian to win the All England Open Badminton Championships. He was awarded the Arjuna award in 1972 and the Padma Shri in 1982 by the Government of India. He is one of the co-founders of Olympic Gold Quest, a foundation dedicated to the promotion of Olympic sports in India.

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Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav (January 15, 1926 – August 14, 1984) was an Indian athlete. He is best known as a wrestler who won a bronze medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. He was the first athlete from independent India to win an individual medal in the OlympicsAfter Norman Pritchard who won two silver medals in athletics in 1900 under colonial India, Khashaba was the first individual athlete from independent India to win a medal at the Olympics. In the years before Khashaba, India would only win gold medals in field hockey, a team sport. He is the only Indian Olympic medalist who never received a Padma Award. Khashaba was extremely nimble on his feet, which made him different from other wrestlers of his time. English coach Rees Gardner saw this trait in him and trained him prior to the 1948 Olympic games.

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Parupalli Kashyap (born 8 September 1986) is a badminton player from India. He trains at Gopichand Badminton Academy. He was awarded the Arjuna Award by Government of India in 2012.He created history by reaching the quarter-finals of men’s singles at 2012 London Olympics, being the first male player from India to do so. At the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, he won the gold medal in men’s singles. Kashyap was the Icon Player for the Indian Badminton League team, Banga Beats in 2013 edition.
He married fellow badminton player, Saina Nehwal in a private ceremony on 14 December 2018.

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Gagan Narang (born 6 May 1983) is an Indian shooter, supported by the Olympic Gold Quest. He was the first Indian to qualify for the London Olympics. He won the Bronze Medal in the Men’s 10 m Air Rifle Event at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London with a final score of 701.1 on 30 July 2012.

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Sunil Manohar Gavaskar ( born 10 July 1949), often known as Sunny Gavaskar Or Simply Sunil Gavaskar, is an Indian cricket commentator and former cricketer representing India and Bombay from the early 1970s to the late 1980s. Widely regarded as one of the greatest Test batsmen and best opening batsmen in Test cricket history, Gavaskar set world records during his career for the most Test runs and most Test centuries scored by any batsman. He held the record of 34 Test centuries for almost two decades before it was broken by Sachin Tendulkar in December 2005. He was the first person to score centuries in both innings of a Test match three times. He was the first Test batsman to score 10,000 Test runs in a career and now stands at number 12 on the group of 13 players with 10,000-plus Test runs.
Gavaskar was widely admired for his technique against fast bowling, with a particularly high average of 65.45 against the West Indies team, who possessed a four-pronged fast bowling attack regarded as the most vicious in Test history. His captaincy of the Indian team, however, was less successful. Turbulent performances of the team led to multiple exchanges of captaincy between Gavaskar and Kapil Dev, with one of Gavaskar’s sackings coming just six months before Kapil led India to victory at the 1983 Cricket World Cup. He is also a former Sheriff of Mumbai.
Gavaskar is a recipient of the Indian civilian honours of the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan. He was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2009. In 2012, he was awarded the Col CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award for Cricket in India.

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Kapil Dev Ramlal Nikhanj (born 6 January 1959) is a former Indian cricketer. He was a fast bowler and a hard hitting middle order batsman. Dev is widely regarded as one of the greatest all-rounders to play the game, he is also regarded as one of the greatest captains in the history of cricket. He was named by Wisden as the Indian Cricketer of the Century in 2002.Dev captained the Indian cricket team that won the 1983 Cricket World Cup. He was India’s national cricket coach between October 1999 and August 2000. He retired in 1994, holding the world record for the greatest number of wickets taken in Test cricket, a record subsequently broken by Courtney Walsh in 2000. At the time, he was also India’s highest wicket-taker in both major forms of cricket, Tests and ODIs. He is the first player to take 200 ODI wickets. He is the only player in the history of cricket to have taken more than 400 wickets (434 wickets) and scored more than 5000 runs in Tests, making him one of the greatest all-rounders to have played the game. On 11 March 2010, Dev was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.

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Pullela Gopichand (born 16 November 1973) is a former Indian badminton player. Presently, he is the Chief National Coach for the Indian Badminton team. He won the All England Open Badminton Championships in 2001 becoming the second Indian to achieve this feat after Prakash Padukone. He runs the Gopichand Badminton Academy. He received the Arjuna Award in 1999, the Dronacharya Award in 2009 and the Padma Bhushan – India’s third highest civilian award – in 2014.

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Srikanth Kidambi (born 7 February 1993) is an Indian badminton player who trains at the Gopichand Badminton Academy, Hyderabad. He ranked as world number 1 at the BWF ranking in April 2018. Kidambi was awarded with the Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian award in 2018. and Arjuna award in 2015.

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Kumar Ram Narain Karthikeyan (born 14 January 1977) is a racing driver who was the first Formula One driver from India. He has previously competed in A1GP, and the Le Mans Series. He has won multiple races in A1GP, British F3, World series by Nissan, AutoGP, Formula Asia, British Formula Ford & Opel series in his single-seater career. He won the British Formula Ford Winter Series in 1994 & Formula Asia Championship in 1996. He also finished fourth overall in British F3 in 2000 & the World Nissan series in 2003. He made his Formula One debut in 2005 with the Jordan team, and was a Williams F1 test driver in 2006 and 2007. Like several other former F1 drivers, Karthikeyan moved to stock car racing and drove the No. 60 Safe Auto Insurance Company Toyota Tundra for Wyler Racing in the 2010 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.
In 2011, he returned to F1 with the HRT team, continued with the team in 2012 and was expected to drive for them in the 2013 season as well.
However, HRT was not included in the FIA’s 2013 entry list, and thus Karthikeyan was left without a drive. From 2014–2018, Karthikeyan raced in Japanese Super Formula series. In 2019, he ended his single-seater career by joining SuperGT series in Japan.
The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of Padma Shri in 2010.

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Achanta Sharath Kamal (born 12 July 1982) is a professional table tennis player from Tamil Nadu, India. He is the first Indian table tennis player ever to become nine times Senior National Champion hence breaking the record of eight times National Champion Kamlesh Mehta. Recently he received the fourth highest civilian award, Padma Shri.
His current world rank is 41 as of September, 2019. He beat Joo Se Hyuk and Chuang Chih-yuan, world no. 8 and 16 respectively in 2015 28th Asian cup at Jaipur. Sharath won the men’s singles gold in the 16th Commonwealth table tennis championship held at Kuala Lumpur in 2004. He is a recipient of the Arjuna award for the year 2004. He currently lives in Düsseldorf, Germany. Over the past few years he has been playing in the European league. After stints in Spain and Sweden, he is currently playing in the German Bundesliga for the club Borussia Düsseldorf. He is employed with the Indian Oil Corporation as an officer.He has won the US Open Table Tennis Men’s championships held at Grand Rapids, Michigan in July 2010. During the course of the tournament he went on to defeat the defending champion Thomas Keinath of Slovakia in an epic battle of 7 games to win 4–3. In the same year he won the Egypt Open beating Li Ching of Hong Kong in straight sets 11–7, 11–9, 11–8, 11–4; thus becoming first Indian to win a singles title on the ITTF Pro Tour. He also captained the Indian men’s team that won the team title at the same championship by defeating favourites and nine-time champions England.
He also won the gold medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, beating crowd favourite Australian William Henzell in the final, apart from helping the Indian team clinch gold in the table tennis team event against Singapore. He teamed up with Subhajit Saha to win the Men’s Doubles gold at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. He won three medals in 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, gold in men’s team event with Anthony Amalraj, Harmeet Desai, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran & Sanil Shetty silver in men’s doubles with Sathiyan Gnanasekaran & bronze in men’s singles event.He represented India in the 2004 Olympics in Athens and is still the top Indian TT player. He also represented the country in the 2006 Asian Games at Qatar.
In the year 2007 he was the first Indian to win the Pyongyang Invitational Tournament held at Pyongyang, North Korea. This was the 21st edition of the tournament which was held in August 2007. His best performance on the world circuit came in the Japan Pro Tour held in June 2007 where he beat World No.19, Lee Jung Woo (South Korea). After this victory he reached his career best ranking of World No. 73 and in January 2011 his ranking is 44. Incidentally, Sharath was also the only Indian Men’s Table Tennis player to be selected for the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
In the season 2010–11 he also played in the German major league (Bundesliga) for TSV Gräfelfing and has been one of the best players in the league with wins over top German TT players. He played for SV Werder Bremen in the 2011–12 season. During 2012–13, he played in the Swedish league before returning to Germany in May 2013 to sign for Borussia Düsseldorf. Known as the “Rekordmeisters”, Borussia Düsseldorf is one of the best clubs in Europe. Sharath and the team also won the Deutsche Pokal for the year 2013, a prestigious cup tournament in Germany. Currently the team is ranked second in the Bundesliga season 2013–14.
Sharath qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympics after beating Iran’s Noshad Alamian in the Asian Olympic qualification. However, he made a first round exit in the men’s individual event losing to Adrian Crișan of Romania.He is an alumnus of PSBB Nungambakkam school (class of 2000) and Loyola College, Chennai.

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Jimmy George (8 March 1955 – 30 November 1987) is often considered one of the greatest volleyball players of all time and was a member of India men’s national volleyball team. He was the first Indian volleyball player to become a professional and played club volleyball in Italy. He is brother-in-law of the olympian Anju Bobby George.

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Neeraj Chopra VSM (born 24 December 1997) is an Indian track and field athlete who competes in the javelin throw. A Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) in the Indian Army, Chopra is the first track and field athlete to win an Olympic gold medal for India, winning the medal during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the men’s javelin throw.In the 2016 IAAF World U20 Championships, Chopra achieved a world under-20 record of 86.48 m. Debuting at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and the 2018 Asian Games, at which he was the opening flag-bearer, he won gold medals in both Games. In his Olympics debut, Chopra won the gold medal on 7 August 2021 with a throw of 87.58m in his second attempt. He is one of only two Indians to have won an individual Olympic gold medal (alongside Abhinav Bindra), as well as the youngest-ever Indian gold medalist in an individual event and the only one to have won gold in his Olympic debut.

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Colonel Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, (born 29 January 1970) is an Indian politician, Olympic medallist and retired Indian Army officer. Rathore is a Member of Parliament in the 17th Lok Sabha from Jaipur Rural seat. He served as the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in the Government of India till May 2019.He won 25 international medals at various championships for Double Trap Shooting including a silver medal at 2004 Summer Olympics in Men’s Double Trap event.Rathore served as a commissioned officer in The Grenadiers regiment of the Indian Army before retiring in 2013 as a colonel. Following his retirement from the army and shooting, he became the member of the parliament for the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2014.
In November 2014, was made the Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting. Rathore was appointed as a Cabinet minister with independent charge for Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in 2017.

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Ravi Kumar Dahiya, also known as Ravi Kumar, is an Indian freestyle wrestler who won a silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the 57 kg category. He is also a bronze medalist from 2019 World Wrestling Championships and a two-time Asian champion.

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Pardeep Narwal (born 16 February 1997) is an Indian kabaddi player who currently plays for the UP Yoddha in VIVO Pro Kabaddi League and the Indian National Kabaddi team. Pardeep is one of the most prominent players in Pro Kabaddi and is currently the highest raid-point scorer in league history. He led the Patna Pirates to three straight VIVO Pro Kabaddi titles between 2016–17 and holds a multitude of the league’s raiding records.

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Anup Kumar (born 20 November 1984) is a former Indian professional Kabaddi player. He was a member of the India national kabaddi team that won Asian gold medals in 2010 and 2014, one South Asian gold medal in 2016 and the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup. He was the captain of the Indian National Kabaddi Team. He is one of the most successful raiders of Pro Kabaddi League and International Kabaddi. He spent five years with U Mumba and later moved to Jaipur Pink Panthers. In 2012, the Government of India conferred the Arjuna Award on him for his achievements in the sport. He is employed as a Deputy Commissioner of Police in his native State of Haryana. He has 596 points in the Pro Kabaddi League. On 19 December 2018, he announced his retirement from kabbadi.

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Bajrang Punia (born 26 February 1994) is a freestyle wrestler and olympian from India. He competes in the 65-kg weight category. He is the only Indian wrestler to win 3 medals at the World Wrestling Championships. He won a bronze medal by defeating Kazakhstan’s Daulet Niyazbekov at Tokyo Olympics, where the former Asian Games gold medalist dominated the men’s 65 kg bronze medal bout from start to finish. The bronze medal match ended in a 8-0 scoreline in favour of Punia.

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Deepak Ram Niwas Hooda (born 10 June 1994) is an Indian professional Kabaddi player and the captain of India national kabaddi team.. He was part of the Indian team which won gold medal at the 2016 South Asian Games. He has also featured in all the seasons of the Pro Kabaddi League.

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Rahul Chaudhari is an Indian professional Kabaddi player. He started as a Defender but later became a Raider. He was a member of the Indian National Kabaddi team that won a gold medal in the 2016 South Asian Games. After six seasons with Telugu Titans and one season for Tamil Thalaivas , Rahul now plays for Puneri Paltan .

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Manjeet Chhillar (born 18 August 1986) is an Indian professional kabaddi player, who currently represents Dabang Delhi in the Pro Kabaddi League. He was a member of the India national kabaddi team and won an Asian games gold medal in 2014 and Asian Indoor Games in 2014 in Incheon. The Government of India conferred the Arjuna Award on him for his achievements in sports. In an exclusive chat with NNIS Sports, Chhillar termed it as a ‘dream’ to receive the prestigious award. He was also the member of state team of Haryana and is on top of Pro Kabaddi’s all-time leaderboards for tackle points (302), successful tackles (289) and High 5s (21).

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Ajay Thakur (born 1 May 1986) is an Indian professional Kabaddi player and the former captain of the Indian National Kabaddi Team. He was part of the national teams which won 2016 Kabaddi World Cup and gold medal at 2014 Asian Games. He was awarded the Padma Shri and Arjuna Award in 2019.
He is a member of Himachal Pradesh Police Service cadre who currently serves as Deputy superintendent of police.

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