So Close Yet So Far: Top 5 Unluckiest Cricketers Of India

Right from the time when a child in India picks up cricket bat, he aspires to don the famous jersey of the Indian team. Working day in day out, the child crosses all the hurdles and defies all the odds to slowly but steadily reach towards his ultimate goal of representing Team India. However, only a handful of those millions of aspirants manage to achieve the dream of playing for the country.

What makes it even a more hard pill to swallow for some is the fact that they fail to achieve their dream even after doing every possible thing they could but failed in their endeavor because of some cruel circumstances.

So here we are taking a look at five players who failed to make it to the Indian team despite being immensely talented:

Anil Gurav

Such was Anil Gurav’s potential as a cricketer was that celebrated cricket coach Ramakant Achrekar had asked two of his most talented pupils – Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli to watch Gaurav’s strokeplay and learn from him.

Fondly called as the Vivian Richards of Mumbai and was tipped for greater things by many. However, Mumbai U-19 team was the farthest he could make and the reason behind it is as painful as his promising career ending in a disastrous manner. Anil began to deviate from the game when his brother Ajit joined underworld. As a result, Police used to pick up Anil and his mother repeatedly and severely beat them up to find out the whereabouts of Ajit. Unable to cope up with the situation, Anil took to heavy drinking and his promising cricketing career came to an abrupt end.

Yere Goud:

” Yere was the Rahul Dravid of the Railways team.” This is what former Indian fast bowler Javagal Srinath said when Yere Goud brought down curtains on his illustrious career in domestic circuit.

In a career that spanned over 15 years, the former Railways and Karnataka skipper scored 7650 runs at an average of 45.53 with 16 centuries and 39 half-centuries. He won the Ranji title in 2001-02 and 2004-05 with the Railways team and then went on to win three Irani trophies, one Duleep Trophy and a Ranji one-day trophy. But despite being one of the biggest names in the domestic circuit for around a decade, Goud never got the call from the national team.

Dhruv Pandove:

Another bright prospect who was destined for great things, Dhruv Pandove had caused quite a stir across the cricket fraternity with his unbelievable performances. He shot into the limelight after impressing in Punjab under-15 and under-17 teams.

He soon made his first-class debut at an early age of 13 after scores of 159 against Jammu and Kashmir under-17s and 51 against Delhi under-17s in the 1987–88 Vijay Hazare Trophy. And he justified all the hype surrounding him by scoring 94 in his very first match against Himachal Pradesh.

In 1987-88 Vijay Merchant Trophy, he slammed 206 in the semifinal against Central Zone under-15s, followed by 117 and 42 not out in the final against East Zone under-15s. In his only third first-class game, he hit 137 against Jammu and Kashmir at Srinagar and became the youngest Indian and one of the youngest players in the world to score a first-class century, at the age of 14 years and 294 days.

He kept on touching new heights with every passing day as he led Punjab U-19 in the 1990–91 Cooch Behar Trophy in which he scored back-to-back hundreds. At a young age of 17 years, he surpassed the 1000-run mark in Ranji Trophy. But his promising cricket career came to an abrupt end when he died in a road accident in 1992 while returning home after the conclusion of Deodhar Trophy quarterfinal.

Padmakar Shivalkar:

Arguably the greatest spinner never to play for India. A menace with his spinning deliveries, Shivalkar took a staggering 589 wickets at an incredible average of 19.69 and economy of just over 2. But with the likes of Bishan Singh Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna cementing their spots in the national team, Shivalkar could not fulfill his dream of donning the Indian jersey.

Amol Mazumdar:

Just like Shivalkar was born in the wrong era when the Indian team was brimming with quality spinner, Amol Mazumdar also paid the prize for playing in the era when the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid were ruling the roost.

One of the greatest players in the history of Ranji Trophy, Amol scored a magnificent double century on his debut.He finished his career with 10, 208 first-class runs at an average of 47.47 with 25 hundreds but never got a call from the Indian team.