Exactly 39 years ago, former World Cup winning captain and India’s best all-rounder, Kapil Dev, made his Test debut against Pakistan at Faisalabad. In what was the first Test of India’s tour of Pakistan in 1978, the then Pakistan captain, Mushtaq Mohammad, had won the toss and elected to bat first.

Bishan Singh Bedi, the then Indian captain, gave the new ball to Dev in his first Test. Dev remained wicketless in his first Test innings in his figures of 16-0-71-0. Pakistan declared their innings on 503-8 in 152 overs. Zaheer Abbas and Javed Miandad had scored individual centuries each.

On the back of Gundappa Viswanath’s century, India scored 462-9 dec. in 142.5 overs. Dev was sent in to bat at Number 8 and could only score 8 runs. In the second innings, Asif Iqbal’s century was crucial in Pakistan scoring 264-4 dec. in 71.5 overs. Dev picked up his first Test wicket in the form of Sadiq Mohammad in this innings.

The match ended in a draw as India were required to chase 306 runs to win, but, only 19 overs of play was possible. The legendary all-rounder, who had an average debut match, went on to pick 434 wickets for India in 131 Tests at an average of 29.64. With the bat, he scored 5,248 runs, including eight centuries and 27 half-centuries. He still remains the second-highest wicket-taker for India in Tests.

Watch the video of his debut Test match: