What is common between Vinay Kumar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Dhammika Prasad, Joe Root, Younis Khan and Mashrafe Mortaza? They have all been named as Cricketers of the Year by Wisden India 2016.
What makes Prasad a captain's delight is his never-say-die attitude that, fused with his sunny countenance, effortlessly lifts the morale of the side, according to R. Kaushik. "On the hottest of days and on the most benign of pitches, both of which are very much a Sri Lankan speciality, Prasad will keep plugging away, just on or outside off, nipping one away, cutting one back, swinging it a touch if there is something in the air. He will run in ball after ball, over after over, always believing that the next wicket is just one delivery away."
Wisden India 2016 is the Indian arm of sport's oldest and prestigious publication.
India's domestic cricket, apart from Women's cricket, has been covered in detail. Pages have also been devoted to Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and UAE apart from Rest of Asia.
In a section on Recorded history, there are articles on Accidents in Cricket by KV Gopala Ratnam, My most memorable innings by Mushtaq Ali, 'Jamsu' - the forgotten cricketer by Vasant Raiji, Havoc in the Caribbean by KN Prabhu, The Test grounds I know by NS Ramaaswami and Cliques and caucuses by DB Deodhar, Vish fulfilment by Sunil Gavaskar, Merchant on the Greats - How Gavaskar differs from me and Bedi vis-a-vis Mankad.
Suresh Menon, in his Editorial notes, has shown his concern with regard to granting of Test status to few more grounds: "At its first meeting under Manohar, the BCCI decided to grant Test status to half a dozen grounds, including the home turf of its secretary, Anurag Thakur. This is bizarre. Test Cricket has been played on 21 grounds already; adding another six to that list owes more to BCCI politics than cricketing logic.
What India needs is fewer and better grounds, not more grounds that are equally unfriendly to the paying spectator. A family outing for an international in India is not the joyous occasion it is in many other parts of the World. The focus ought to be on making it so."
Zaheer's retirement in October 2015, soon after his 37th birthday and 21 months since he last bowled for India, in Wellington, ended special period in the country's pace bowling history. As he carried the baton forward from Kapil Dev through Javagal Srinath and evolved over 15 years to become the world's third-most successful left-arm seamer with 610 scalps (international cricket) behind Wasim Akram (916) and Chaminda Vaas (761), Zaheer gave the Indian attack a cutting edge, wrote Sidhanta Patnaik while paying a farewell tribute.
Suresh Menon has paid a rich tribute to Virender Sehwag: "Sehwag, who bid goodbye, on his 37th birthday, was a fabulous original, both as batsman and person. He didn't play safe either at the crease or in the media room, sharing his thought with rare candour - and innocence. He rewrote the rules of opening the innings, arguing that the field placing and the early bounce were in the batsman's favour. He once made 99 before lunch on the opening day of a Test match in West Indies, thoroughly unaware of the uniqueness of the century in the first session of a Test."
Michael Holding, in his article, namely, Pace of change, is full of praise for the Indian speedsters: Watching the Indian fast bowlers at the 2015 World Cup, one thing became very clear. The land of spin has a very good bunch of quick men. Umesh Yadav's 18 wickets and Mohammed Shami's 17 came at a strike rate of around 21. It meant they were hitting the right length on the pitches in Australia and New Zealand. It also meant that they understood the value of wicket-taking in a one-day international. When you have a set of good fast bowlers, that affects the way your batsmen play too."
All international series have been covered apart from a separate Records' section, covering Tests, ODIs, Twenty20 Internationals, First-class and Ranji Trophy.
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