Javagal Srinath

When he appeared on the scene, Javagal Srinath was the fastest bowler India had produced at Test level, heralding a period of awakening for Indian pace bowling that brought the likes of Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Sreesanth, and the side's formidable 2020s fast bowlers.

More than two decades after he retired from Indian cricket, Srinath remained comfortably the country's leading ODI wicket-taker; for long he was also their second most prolific Test wicket-taker, behind Kapil Dev, before being overtaken by Zaheer and Ishant.

On his day, Srinath was outstanding. A strong shoulder action helped him hit the pitch with force, and he bowled mainly incutters and inswingers, though in the right conditions he could move it the other way. Srinath brought short leg into play as much as he did the slips. On the dustbowls of India, he learned to harness the power of the old ball off the seam rather than in the air, the finest demonstration of which was his 6 for 21 in Ahmedabad in 1996 to bowl out South Africa in the fourth innings.

Srinath started modestly, with ten wickets in the five-Test series in Australia in 1991-92. In South Africa the following year, he stepped it up a touch with 12 from three matches, including six in the draw in Cape Town. When the South Africans came to India in 1996, he feasted with 17 from three Tests, and in the return series the following year, he took seven in Johannesburg and 18 in the series overall.

Srinath's peak came in the 12 months starting late 1998, when he harvested 50 wickets in five series at 29.6. In the first Test of the Asian Test Championship, in Kolkata in 1999, only a blinder from Saeed Anwar kept Pakistan alive as Srinath did for the rest of their side with 8 for 86.

Late in his career - perhaps later than should have been - Srinath added variations to his bowling, in particular using the legcutter and the slower delivery to good effect in one-day cricket. He played four World Cups for India and he saved his best for last: in 2003, on his happy hunting grounds in South Africa, he took 16 wickets at 23 in India's run to the final - his last international outing. Just before that tournament, he had excelled in the bilateral series in New Zealand, where he found the green wickets to his liking and ended up with 18 wickets from the seven ODIs.

Srinath's weak points were his stamina and his fragility under pressure. He often gave the impression that he could have done more, but by the time he was finished he had, in many ways, done enough.