Laxman Sivaramakrishnan is a former India spinner and currently works as a cricket commentator. Affectionately known as ‘Siva,’ he saw some great highs in his short career as an international cricketer, which came falling just as quickly.

Who’s the best wicketkeeper India has ever seen? Quite a tricky question, given we all have lived and loved different eras of the game. If you saw the game in the 60s, maybe Faroukh Engineer’s your answer, while most youngsters would name MS Dhoni. Among of mirage of the umpteen wicketkeepers we’ve given to the world, Syed Kirmani’s name gets lost somewhere, and it shouldn’t.

When you come from a country with over a billion people and where everyone loves cricket, it is incredibly tough to defy all odds and rise to glory. Mumbai-born Yashasvi Jaiswal is only 20 and is already on his way to becoming a key star for Indian cricket’s future.

Coming off the back of a World Cup victory in the year 1983, India was hosting the West Indies for an ODI and Test series. What was a gloomy series for the most part had a few moments of glitter, one of which was Sunil Gavaskar’s record-breaking 236.

Incredible form in the Sheffield Season prior to the Christmas season that year had made Steve Waugh one of the most obvious picks for the summer. Waugh himself, however, wasn’t so sure. His call-up to the squad was surprising, but even then, he was expecting to be the twelfth man. Had Greg Ritchie not injured his toe, that might’ve been the case.

While the Caribbean was the land of outlandishly quick fast bowlers and Australia produced formidable batters of steel, India was the home of spin. Names like Bedi, Prasanna and Venkat had it in them to give the best players a run for their money. Among these iconic names was a man who came onto the international scene a little later, but left a mark almost just as deep.

In the second test of the 1959-60 test series against Australia, off-spinner led the way for one of the most monumental bowling performances of all time, recording bowling figures of 9-69 in the first innings.

For someone to have a reputable domestic tournament named after them, they must have achieved some remarkable things in their glory days, right? In plainly modest terms, I can say that Vijay Hazare was one of the founding members of Indian cricket, going all the way back to the time after the Second World War.

Jasubhai Motibhai Patel was one of India's earliest elite off-break spinners who had set the tone for off-spinners to contribute as champions in the early days.

Almost every cricketing legend has a tale or two about Yuvraj Singh. The young boy from Chandigarh had humble beginnings and was almost forced into the game that he went on to dominate for more than a decade.