It was way back in 1978 when Doordarshan was the only mode of entertainment. Weston made television sets and only real-life happened in color. But it was indelible for a generation who had grown up listening to the BBC’s Test Match Special on shortwave. For them watching live telecasts was some sort of alien thing. Pakistan had a very strong team which include rebels like Zaheer Abbas, Miandad, Wasim Bari, Imran Khan, Sarfraz Nawaz, and was lead by Mushtaq Mohammad. India had Sunil Gavaskar and spin trio of Bedi, Prasanna, and Chandrashekhar. In spite of this India got hammered. Spin trio was sent into early retirement. But Kapil Was silver lining. The clownish Jat bowled fast and furious. He hit Sadiq on the helmet before he could react as Mukul says “think of Yuvraj pumped up to the power of ten and you have some idea of what that debut meant to Indian cricket”.If Kapil hadn’t happened along we would have to invent him.

Some of his remarkable feats

The 1983 tournament memorable knock of 175 against Zimbabwe , this was first ever century in ODI by an Indian

On 13 June 1983 in the league stage of Prudential World Cup became first Indian to scalp fifer in an ODI

Best bowling by a skipper in test cricket 9/83 vs WesT Indies at Ahmedabad

75 Wickets in 1983, Most in a calendar year by an Indian bowler, eclipsing his own record of 74 wickets in 1979. That year in 1979 he also scored 619 runs thus becoming the only player with 70 plus wickets and 600 runs in a calendar year.

Only player with 4000 test runs and 400 wickets

Joint Fastest hundred by an Indian in test , 74 ball 💯 against Sri Lanka in 1986 Kanpur test. This record was equaled by Azharuddin in 1996 Calcutta test.

Kapil Dev and Dilip Vengsarkar were the first pair to play 100 tests together.

Kapil holds the record of most test inns batted without being run out, a record 184 inns in his career.