- Considered to be the best pace bowler all-rounder produced by India, and India's best pace bowler to date.
- Member of India's cricket team (1978-1994).
- Voted India's Cricketer of the Century in 2002.
- Once held the world record for number of test wickets taken.
- Has one daughter Amiya Dev.
- Captained the Indian National Cricket Team in 34 tests and 74 One-Day internationals. Under his leadership, India beat West Indies to clinch the 1983 Cricket World Cup.
- The Government of India bestowed upon him the Padma Shri, its fourth highest civilian honour, in 1982 and Padma Bhushan, it's third highest civilian award, in 1991.
- Was one of the 55 inaugural inductees in the prestigious ICC Cricket Hall Of Fame in 2009.
- In his very first over on test debut, Kapil delivered a bouncer over Pakistani opening batsman Sadiq Mohammad, forcing the batsman to call for a helmet. Wisden quoted on the display as "Quite easily the fastest ball by an Indian since Independence".
- Good friends with 1983 World Cup vice-captain and star batsman Mohinder Amarnath as well as rival all-rounder from England Sir Ian Botham.
- Wisden Cricketer Of The Year 1982 and Wisden Leading Cricketer In The World, 1984.
- One of the founding members of the now defunct Indian Cricket League(ICL), sponsored and organized by Indian media baron and Essel Group chairman Subhash Chandra. He had to quit his position as the head of India's National Cricket Academy (NCA) during his tenure of association with the ICL.
- At just 21 years and 4 days, he's the youngest to complete the double of 1000 runs and 100 wickets. He's also the second fastest to accomplish the milestone, taking 25 tests. The fastest happens to be his English rival and best friend Ian Botham, who reached the landmark in only 21 tests.
- Achieved his career best ICC bowler ratings of 877 points during the 1979-80 home series against Pakistan, just 13 months and 20 tests after his debut in October 1978 against the same opponents. It was also during this series he was ranked the second best bowler in the world, behind only Australia's Dennis Lillee.
- Has been very candid in interviews that despite his enumerous achievements, his statistics fade in comparison to his illustrious rivals Imran Khan, Sir Richard Hadlee and Sir Ian Botham, stating that Hadlee and Khan in their prime could claim greatness based on their bowling alone while Botham was the only one amongst them who consistently won matches with both bat and ball at the same instance. However, he also modestly stated that he was by and large the best athlete amongst the quartet as proven by the fact that he never missed a single test or ODI due to injury, unlike Khan or Botham and never took time off due to stress unlike Hadlee.
- Made amends with Sunil Gavaskar during the 2010s with Gavaskar hailing him as India's greatest match-winner ever while Kapil hailed Gavaskar as India's greatest batsman of all-time, even ahead of Sachin Tendulkar.
- Was appointed as an honorary Lieutenant Colonel in the Indian Territorial Army in 2009.
- Was invited, alongside Navjot Singh Sidhu and Sunil Gavaskar, to his contemporary Imran Khan's swearing-in ceremony as the Prime Minister of Pakistan. While Sidhu attended the event, both Kapil and Gavaskar declined citing the ongoing hostilities between the two nations. However, Kapil did congratulate Khan on his election victory via a video message and asked him to be the premier of his country just as he had been the captain of the Pakistani team during his cricketing career.
- Was voted by ESPN as the 22nd greatest cricketer of all-time.
- His captaincy in tests was under heavy scrutiny before the 1986/87 tour of England as India hadn't won any of the 20 tests under his charge till then. However, not only did Kapil accomplish his first ever test win as captain during the series against England, he was also Man-of-the-Match in the victory at Lord's, India's first ever at the iconic venue in 55 years as a test playing nation and the series was won 2-0, India's second in England after 1971. It wouldn't be until 2007 that India won another test series in England.
- Was accused of match-fixing by new ball bowling partner Manoj Prabhakar in 1999-00. Prabhakar stated that Kapil had approached him offering INR 2.5 million to throw away an ODI match against Sri Lanka dating back to 1993. Kapil resigned from his position as India's head coach pending investigation by the CBI on request of the BCCI. After thorough inquiry, not only was Kapil exonerated of any wrong doing, Prabhakar was instead discovered of having links with bookies and accepting bribes, leading to his ban from any cricket associated activities for five years.
- Regards his match winning bowling figures of 11 for 96 combined with a quickfire 84 with the bat against Pakistan at Chennai during the 1979-80 home series as his personal favorite all-round performance. India eventually won the series 2-0, with Kapil playing another crucial knock of 69 in the other victory at Mumbai.
- His career best bowling figures of 9/83 against West Indies at Ahmedabad in 1983 is the best bowling performance by any bowler against the number one ranked side of the 1980s, the best bowling stats by the captain of a side and the best individual analysis by any bowler in a losing cause.
- Enjoys playing golf in free time.
- Is a prominent shareholder in Zimcom Electronics, the firm responsible for setting up floodlights at the Arun Jaitley International Cricket Stadium, Delhi as well as PCA Stadium, Mohali. Also owns a restaurant chain called Kaptain's Eleven, with setups in Delhi, Chandigarh and Patna.
- Won back-to-back Man-of-the-series awards against England for his all-round displays during the 1982-83 season. First, during the 6 test home series for scoring over 300 runs and taking 22 wickets, the second for the tour of England where he scored 292 runs and took 10 wickets with the citation that Kapil was India's highest run scorer despite the presence of specialist batsmen of the caliber of Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Vishwanath.
- As per recent calculations, Kapil was the number 1 ranked ODI all-rounder in ICC's annual ratings for 12 straight years from 1983 till his retirement in 1994. Also, starting from 1982, he never failed to make it to the top-10 of ICC's ODI bowler ratings right upto his retirement apart from making it to the top-10 of the batting charts on 3 separate occasions.
- During a tri-series match against New Zealand at Brisbane in 1981-82, Kapil hit star spinner Jeremy Coney for back-to-back sixes en route to a match winning innings of 75 in just 51 deliveries. As a gesture of admiration for the Indian's raw power, Coney took out his white handkerchief and waved it in front of Kapil as if surrendering.
- Has published 2 autobiographies namely CRICKET, MY STYLE and BY GOD'S DECREE.
- On his first and only tour of South Africa in 1992 after the country was readmitted to international cricket post the end of Apartheid in 1991, Kapil batting with a fractured hand scored 129 of the team's total of 215 on a completely deteriorated Port Elizabeth wicket after India were 31/6 when he came to the crease. Although India ended up losing the test, courtesy Allan Donald's 12 wickets, it was the first instance in Indian cricket history that one player accounted for 60% of team's innings total.
- As observed from his bowling style, his fluent run up coupled with the unusual high jump delivered side on meant that the outswinger came naturally to him but as the 1980s progressed, he developed an inswinger as well which came in handy on the flat Indian pitches. However in an interview, he frankly admitted that he could never deliver a leg cutter.
- As of August 2022, the 1990-91 season is the only occasion his domestic side Haryana won India's national cricket championship, the Ranji Trophy, that too beating a highly formidable Mumbai team in the finals, with Kapil taking key 3 wickets in Mumbai's first innings, securing a lead of 112 and scoring a quickfire 41 in Haryana's second innings to help set a fourth innings target of 355 for Mumbai, which they eventually failed to chase. Kapil also scored a century against an equally potent Bengal team in Haryana's semi-final triumph.
- The cumulative batting average of the 434 batsmen dismissed by him was 29.82, putting him in the first quartile of bowlers based on the quality of wickets they took.
- Took Australian legend Allan Border's and English icon David Gower's wickets 10 times a piece. Also dismissed Graham Gooch, by far the best English batsman of his generation, 11 times.
- During his career, he appeared in 31 tests lost by India, taking 132 wickets. Amongst fast bowlers, the tally is the fourth highest behind West Indies legend Courtney Walsh and Englishmen James Anderson and Stuart Broad. In the 22 overseas tests lost by India, he took 98 wickets, the second highest tally in the criteria for fast bowlers, again behind Walsh.
- Was the first bowler to dismiss legendary spin bowler Shane Warne in the Australian's international career. Kapil had Warne caught by Chandrakant Pandit for 20 at the Sydney test during the 1991/92 tour of Australia on what was Warne's debut.
- As of January 2023, his peak ODI rating of 845 points is the third highest accumulated by an Asian fast bowler behind Sri Lanka's Chaminda Vaas and Pakistan's Wasim Akram, the fifth best by any Asian bowler behind Sri Lankans Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas, Wasim Akram and fellow Indian Maninder Singh and the 17th highest of all-time on the ICC bowling charts.
- Took 175 top order wickets from batting positions 1-3 and 136 middle order wickets from positions 4-7, making his tally 311 wickets, equaling to 71% of his test career aggregate, from core of the batting line-ups.
- His peak rating of 631 points is the highest ever accumulated by any cricketer on the ICC's All-Rounder's Rankings in One Day Internationals. Kapil accomplished this feat during India's triumphant campaign in the Benson And Hedges World Championship of Cricket in Australia in 1985.
- Played county cricket in England for Northamptonshire between 1981 and 1983 and for Worcestershire during the 1984 and 1985 seasons. In his 40 first-class matches in with the two sides, he scored 2,312 runs across 64 innings with four centuries and 14 half-centuries.
- Amongst batsmen who averaged 50 or more in test cricket, Australian Greg Chappell was the only cricketer whom Kapil couldn't dismiss during his active career.
- Underwent angioplasty in October of 2020.
- Was appointed first chancellor of Haryana Sports University in 2019.
- Based on the peak ICC ODI Ratings accumulated by players, Dev was named the captain of Wisden's All-Time Dream ODI XI in December 2020.
- On both his first ever tour of Pakistan in 1978-79, which was also his international debut, as well as his last tour of the country in 1989-90, he coincidentally scored 159 runs in both the series.
- Barring New Zealand, he never had an unproductive tour of any country outside the subcontinent.
- His legendary match-winning 175* against Zimbabwe at Tunbridge Wells during the 1983 World Cup was the first century by an Indian in One Day Internationals. The innings was voted by Wisden as the 4th greatest individual ODI batting performance in history.
- Was bestowed with the Lifetime Achievement Award instituted by the Indo-European Business Forum at a ceremony in the House Of Lords, the upper section of the British parliament, in September 2014. Speaking on the occasion, Kapil quoted that he used to hate England as a child due to its colonial past but with age he was happy it gave India two things: the game of cricket which England doesn't play well and the English language which he couldn't speak well. The entire house, after a burst of laughter, gave him a standing applause.
- 6 of his 8 Man-of-the-Match awards in test cricket came in the opening game of the respective series: against England at Mumbai in 1981-82 followed by Lord's in 1982 as well as 1986-87, against Pakistan at Karachi during his penultimate series against the country in 1989-90 and against Australia at Melbourne in 1985 as well as the tied test at Chennai in 1987. In the process, Dev became the first and till date remains the only cricketer to win back-to-back Man-of-the-Match awards at Lord's, although the achievement spanned across 4 years and two separate tours.
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