Yusuf Khan Pathan

Full name     : Yusuf Khan Pathan
Born            : November 17, 1982, Baroda, Gujarat
Current age  : 29 years 312 days
Major teams  : India, Baroda, India Green, Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals
Playing role  : Allrounder
Batting style   :  Right-hand bat
Bowling style  : Right-arm offbreak
Relation Half-brother - IK Pathan

Yusuf Pathan first made his mark as a hard-hitting batsman and offspinner for the Baroda Under-16 team in the Vijay Merchant Trophy in 1999-2000. His impressive showings saw him quickly climb the rungs to the Baroda U-19 and the West Zone U-19 sides. He made his Ranji debut against Saurashtra in 2001-02, but it wasn't until the 2004-05 season, by when younger brother Irfan Pathan was donning the national colours, that he established himself as a regular in the Baroda squad. Pathan ended the 2004-05 season as Baroda's fourth-highest scorer and third-highest wicket-taker.

Zaheer Khan

Full name     : Zaheer Khan
Born            : October 7, 1978, Shrirampur, Maharashtra
Current age  : 33 years 353 days
Major teams : India, Asia XI, Asia XI, Baroda, Mumbai, Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Surrey, Worcestershire
Playing role   : Bowler
Batting style : Right-hand bat
Bowling style : Left-arm fast-medium

Zaheer Khan is an Indian fast bowler with all the traits that made the Pakistani fast bowlers a phenomenon. He swings the new ball and reverses the old, he does well on flat subcontinent pitches and relishes the helpful ones away, and he controls all three balls well - SG, Duke and Kookaburra. He might not quite have the skills of Wasim Akram, who he has often been compared to, but mentally Zaheer has become as good as Akram. He knows how to get wickets, he has an intuitive sense of when to go for the kill, and once a batsman has shown him the slightest hint of a weakness, Zaheer preys on it ruthlessly. Unlike the Pakistan fast bowlers of the 2000s, though, he stays away from controversy and is pretty low-key off the field.

Shanthakumaran Sreesanth

Full name        : Shanthakumaran Sreesanth
Born               : February 6, 1983, Kothamangalam, Kerala
Current age     : 29 years 231 days
Major teams    : India, Asia XI, Kerala, Kerala Under-19s, Kings XI Punjab, Kochi Tuskers Kerala, Rajasthan Royals, Warwickshire
Also known as : Gopu
Playing role        : Bowler
Batting style     : Right-hand bat
Bowling style    : Right-arm fast-medium
For three seasons, Sreesanth was hardly anything more than an answer to a trivia question - who is the only Kerala bowler to have taken a Ranji Trophy hat-trick ? His rise, though, was rapid, and since he played for a weak side, unnoticed. Not too many bowlers get selected for the Duleep Trophy in their first season, like Sreesanth did in 2002-03 after snapping up 22 wickets in his first seven games.

Harbhajan Singh

Full name    : Harbhajan Singh
Born           : July 3, 1980, Jullundur (now Jalandhar), Punjab
Current age :32 years 83 days
Major teams : India, Asia XI, Essex, India Green, Lancashire, Mumbai Indians, Punjab, Surrey
Playing role : Bowler
Batting style : Right-hand bat
Bowling style: Right-arm offbreak

A player of passion, with talent to match, Harbhajan Singh is India's most successful offspin bowler. Purists might mutter about a lack of loop and flight, but he is very much a product of his times where short boundaries, heavy bats and shorter forms afford little latitude to slow bowlers. Bowling with a windmilling, whiplash action, remodelled after he was reported for throwing, he deals by varying his length and his pace, and can turn it the other way too. His deadliest ball, however, is the one that climbs wickedly from a length, forcing a hurried jab. In March 2001, it proved too much for the all-conquering Australians, as Harbhajan collected 32 wickets in three Tests, including the first Test hat-trick by an Indian, while none of his team-mates managed more than three. His personal rivalry against the Australians has provided him both the highest and the lowest points of his career. Invariably, he has managed to raise his game against them, and been singularly responsible for Ricky Ponting's low scores on Indian soil - he dismissed him five times under 12 in the 2001 series - and some his punchiest batting performances has come against them too. But in 2008 his confrontation with Andrew Symonds created one of the ugliest controversies in cricket - he was initially charged with racial insult which was reduced to abuse on appeal. Later that year, he was banned for whole IPL season for slapping Sreesanth, his Indian team-mate. When he channels his natural combativeness in the right direction, he can be a fiercely competitive and dangerous opponent. He was expected to be India's lead spinner in the all three forms of the game after Anil Kumble's retirement, but following a run of poor form was dropped from India's Test team for home series against West Indies and the tour of Australia in the 2011-12 season.