Published: Aug 16, 2015, 11:52 AM (IST)
Edited: Aug 16, 2015, 11:53 AM (IST)
One of India’s great allounders Kapil Dev began his career in 1978 with an indifferent show in the first Test in Faisalabad of India’s tour of Pakistan, which was eventually taken by the home team 2-0. Dev finished with seven wickets in the six innings he bowled in that series, to be India’s most successful fast bowler, in a list dominated by the exploits of Pakistan pacemen Imran Khan and Sarfraz Nawaz, who took 31 wickets together in the series. Dev’s best figures arrived in the first innings of the third Test in Karachi, which was won by Pakistan by eight wickets. READ: Kapil Dev: Don’t want a film being made on my life
Among India’s bowlers, the legspinner Bhagwat Chandrasekhar took more wickets than Dev, eight, at an average of 48.12. Among batsmen, Zaheer Abbas, Pakistan’s No. 3, scored the most runs, 583, in five innings, at an astounding average of 194.33, helped by scoring two hundreds and a fifty, among which was his mammoth 235 not out at Lahore, his third highest Test score. He was followed in the run charts by Sunil Gavaskar, who scored 447 runs in six innings.
In this video embedded above, Dev bowls the first ball of his Test career, and the series, to opener Majid Khan. There is a two-minute silence after this first ball is bowled, in the memory of possibly a distinguished Pakistani individual, after which Dev conceded the first run of his career by bowling a no-ball. Pakistan’s first boundary was scored when Majid took a four through third man off the medium-pace of Mohinder Amarnath.
