Kapil Dev had 75 wickets in an incredible 18 tests in 1983 @ 23.18 bowling as the sole test level bowler in his side for most of the time with only batting AR Ravi Shastri as his support. The second highest amount of wickets that year was 54 by Marshall. 11 of those 18 tests were against the ATG WI side against whom he took 46 wickets @ 20.89. The remaining 6 tests were against Pakistan which was the second best side at the time. He also scored 579 runs @ 22.26 to add to the above including a 100* out of 95 balls against a bowling attack of Marshall, Holding, Roberts and Garner at Port of Spain.
That is not even the most remembered part of his year as he also led India to an impossible world cup victory in 1983 scoring 303 runs @ 60.06 with a SR of 108.99 and taking 12 wickets @ 20.41 over 8 games.
Another great purple patch for Kapil was his first full year in test cricket in 1979 at the age of 20 which was another time he led the wicket taking charts in tests by a massive margin. He took 74 wickets @ 22.9 and scored 609 runs @ 30.9 in 17 tests.
The below puts into context the bowling attack Kapil was working with in 1983:
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