Five Deserving Cricketers Who Failed to Get a Chance Under Virat Kohli's Captaincy

In every era of cricket, we come across few deserving cricketers being benched or out of the team for various reasons. The Indian cricket team always walked out in the park with new faces. During the course, few unluckiest players never got a chance to feature again for the country. Coming to the topic, here, we are going to list out the top five deserving candidates who were overlooked under the captaincy of Virat Kohli.

Here are they:

5. Pankaj Singh:

Numbers and cricketers drive cricket further classified by statistics; it is the line best suited to paceman Pankaj Singh. The lion-hearted cricketer always gave his best in the domestic cricket. But Pankaj was never handed a chance.

After an impressive show for Uttar Pradesh, the lanky Pacer has been called-up to the tour of England under Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s captaincy. Though he was sidelined for the first couple of matches, the injury of Ishant Sharma opened a chance for Pankaj.

The tall lad bowled his heart out and also troubled the batsmen with his sheer accuracy while banking on his line and lengths. India’s poor catching ability also denied him chances to acquire good numbers owing to his tally.

Though he impressed all the cricket pundits, he was dropped for the next game and Ishant got back to his own. After that, in the same year, MS Dhoni retired from Test cricket, and Pankaj Singh never got a chance again.

However, the experienced campaigner in domestic circuit is set to finish his career with only a good, noteworthy stat of securing 400 wickets to his name. He is fourth quickest to reach there.

4. Abhinav Mukund:

The stylish southpaw, Abhinav Mukund is the other player to miss out a chance under Kohli’s leadership. He has always been the prime scorer for his state in the domestic circuit.

The left-handed batsman featured in India’s tour of Sri Lanka. Though he failed to score runs in the first innings, he scored a brilliant 81-run knock in the second innings.

Despite scoring a decent knock, the team management persisted with Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay by neglecting Mukund. He has been the senior to many current crops of cricketers regarding cricketing career.

Mukund started his innings at a very early age and emulated the feats of Sachin Tendulkar by scoring hundreds in both his Ranji Trophy debut and his first Irani trophy game

However, Mukund is very much on the radar. But, to get a comeback chance to the stylish southpaw, a lot of calculations and fortunes should go in his way which seems highly unlikely.

3. Manoj Tiwary:

Probably, Manoj Tiwary is one of the most under-rated cricketers in the Indian cricket. He has always been among the run-scorers in the domestic cricketers, but the selectors didn’t impress national selectors on a regular basis.

The Bengal cricketer recently raised his voice on the selection process asking them to clarify the procedure. Tiwary had an outstanding year during Indian Premier League (IPL) 2017, but the selectors considered performers of domestic circuit.

When he was one among the top scorers in domestic season 2018, selectors gave their nod to IPL players by calling Ambati Rayudu and the bowlers like Deepak Chahar and Siddarth Kaul respectively.

Tiwary scored a hundred to his name during his five One-day Internationals. He was also the part-time bowling option for India who has a four-for in his kitty.

All in all, Tiwary has been the unluckiest cricketer to miss out a berth in the Indian team. In fact, he can be tried to solve India’s No.4 vows in ODI format under Virat Kohli.

2. Amit Mishra:

Amit Mishra, who bowls with a lovely loop and nagging accuracy is the other to miss out opportunity. He has relied on his stock delivery owing to his pivotal leg-break. Mishra also has the top spinner and a well-disguised wrong-un.

In 2002, he made it to the team. From there on, it took five years for Mishra to get his maiden cap for India. Mishra was then the consistent performer for India with his heroics at home conditions.

However, England’s tour to India in 2011 has been the halt for Mishra who couldn’t deliver the goods with the ball. He was eventually out of the squad, and the emergence of Ravichandran Ashwin saw Amit lagging.

After the injury to Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja in 2015,  management named Mishra for the Sri Lankan series when Virat Kohli led the side. He performed exceptionally well and finished the series as leading wicket-taker.

Despite being the hero in Sri Lanka, the return of Ashwin and Jadeja saw Mishra on the sidelines again. With both delivering goods for the team, Mishra has been left out from the squad.

1. Ambati Rayudu:

The most experienced campaigner Ambati Rayudu, who has all the ingredients to become the world-class has been out of the team for quite a time. Though he got chances under Mahendra Singh Dhoni, he never came back after Dhoni’s resignation.

Though he performed well at domestic, the in-form players Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina halted his chances.

With the selectors continuing to retain the same team, the scope for Rayudu became smaller.

However, he took IPL 2018 by a storm. He smashed all the records and the bowlers from across the world to show calibre to the world. Rayudu’s magical performances gained him a call-up for the England tour.

Just when things looked like going positively, the fitness test became a considerable barricade for the youngster. His fitness levels couldn’t match to the minimum Yo-Yo scores which saw him out of the squad.

His exclusion due to fitness drew a huge controversy as Ambati Rayudu is in the form of his life and could have made a difference in the middle-order against England, as one of the five deserving cricketers who didn’t get much of a chance under the captaincy of Virat Kohli.