CWC History: India's best players in each edition from 1975-2015

#3 1987 - Maninder Singh

Singh in action

With the tournament being held in the subcontinent and the matches reduced to 50-over-a-side, India was touted to successfully defend their title. Though they started with an unfortunate one-run loss against the eventual champions, Australia, they were otherwise clinical in their entry to the semis. However, centurion Mike Gatting and the speed-spin duo of Eddie Hemmings and Neil Foster outsmarted the home team into a semifinal exit.

India's star performer in the tournament was Maninder Singh, who picked up 14 wickets, including a 3-fer in the semis. He thoroughly exploited the home conditions as he scalped victims at an average of 20 and a measly economy of 4. Though great things were expected of him, the tournament unfortunately remained the high point in a career that fizzled out too soon.

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#4 1992 - Mohammad Azharuddin

Azhar was the poster boy of Indian cricket before the fixing saga

The tournament traveled to down-under in 1992 where India had always been underperformers. The expectations were low and so were the performances where they managed just two wins - against minnows Zimbabwe and the edition's champions Pakistan - in seven matches played.

1992 marked Sachin Tendulkar's arrival on to the big stage, but India's brightest star was Mohammad Azharuddin, who led the team for several years before being banned on charges of match-fixing. In seven innings, he scored a respectable 332 runs with a high score of 93 coming in another closely fought loss against the Aussies.

He returned an average of a shade above 47 and a healthy strike rate of 78 even while batting largely in the earlier stages of the innings.