10 Talented Indian Cricketers Who Failed To Live Up To Their Potential In International Cricket
Updated - 27 Nov 2023, 04:36 PM
Indian cricket has always been blessed with outrageously talented cricketers across all departments of the game in every era.
However, as they say, talent is not the only thing that can propel you to glory in life. The same is true with regards to cricket.
To thrive in the international arena, apart from talent, you need to have the necessary temperament, luck as well as backing from the team management and selectors.
On that note, here’s a look at talented Indian cricketers who failed to succeed at the international level:
Aakash Chopra
A batsman blessed with the ability to grit it out in tough conditions, Aakash Chopra played numerous crucial knocks for Team India during his brief international career.
His partnerships with Virender Sehwag during the 2003/04 Australian tour were crucial in India setting up big scores. However, unlike in domestic cricket, Chopra was never able to convert his starts into daddy hundreds and once he lost his form, this aspect of his game came back to bite him.
Chopra featured in 10 Tests for India between 2003-04 in which he scored 437 runs at an average of 23 with just two half-centuries. He was eventually dropped during the home series against Australia in late 2004 and was never recalled.
The Delhi cricketer, however, continued to pile up runs at the domestic level for his state team Delhi and later Rajasthan, finishing with 10839 runs in 162 FC games with 29 centuries.
Vinod Kambli
Having made his Test debut against England in 1993, Kambli got off to a fairytale start to his long-format career as he smoked a whirlwind double-ton in just his second Test. He followed it up with another double hundred against Zimbabwe before scoring a ton against Sri Lanka to become the only cricketer to score 100+ runs in three innings against three different opponents.
However, his honeymoon phase soon evaporated as he was soon found out against hard lengths by the West Indies pacers in 1994.
His technical deficiencies but more importantly his off-field shenanigans ensured that Kambli wasn’t considered for Test cricket after 1995.
He continued to play ODI cricket till 2000 but inconsistent performances meant that he could never cement a permanent spot in the playing 11.
Kambli eventually ended his career with just 17 Tests and 104 ODIs against his name in which he managed 1084 and 2477 runs at an average of 54.2 and 32.59 respectively.
Ajay Sharma
A run-making juggernaut in Indian domestic cricket in the 1980s and 90s, Ajay Sharma will forever be remembered as one of the many unfulfilled stories of Indian cricket.
Sharma’s career will be seen by many as an epitome of disappointment because of two reasons. Firstly, for a guy whose FC average was the third-highest for any better with over 10000 runs, Ajay Sharma featured in a solitary Test for India- vs West Indies in 1987/88.
Sharma scored 31 and 23 across two innings but he did not get a single opportunity to add another Test cap to his tally despite consistent performances at the domestic level. He featured in 31 ODIs between 1988-93 in which he managed a mere 424 runs at an average of 20.19 with just three 50s.
He, however, continued to score heavily in domestic cricket. In 1996/97, Sharma became only the third batter to rack up 1000+ runs in a single season. He featured in six Ranji finals and ended up scoring centuries in four of them.
And, secondly, because his career became to an abrupt end in 2000 due to his alleged involvement in the match-fixing scandal for which he was slapped with a life ban. 14 years later, he was acquitted of all the charges.
Sharma featured in a total of 129 FC games, in which he racked up 10120 runs at an average of 67.46 with 38 tons.
Maninder Singh
Touted to be the successor of Bishan Singh Bedi, Maninder Singh could never live up to his potential.
Blessed with outrageous skills and variety, Maninder Singh was expected to break all the records but sadly he could never translate his talent into consistent performance at the international level.
Singh made his Test debut against Pakistan in 1982 at the age of 17 but he endured a nightmare as he failed to pick up a single wicket.
He had a fairytale season in 1986/87 where he came up with brilliant performances against England, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
However, poor performances against the West Indies in 1988 saw him lost his place in the team. He was recalled for the 1989 tour of Pakistan but he again failed to make an impact, managing just 2 wickets in three games.
Singh was dropped from both Test and ODI teams and although he made a return five years later in 1993, he could never cement his place in the playing XI.
Despite claiming 3/79 & 4/66 in a Test match against Zimbabwe, Maninder was never selected for the Indian team again.
He finished his career with just 35 Tests and 59 ODIs against his name in which he managed 88 and 66 wickets at an average of 37.36 and 31.3 respectively.
Pragyan Ojha
A prodigiously talented left-arm spinner, Pragyan Ojha was touted as one of India’s bedrocks in the spin department in the post-Kumble-Harbhajan era.
Ojha made his Test debut against Sri Lanka during the 2009 home series and during the course of the next 4 years, he went on to claim a total of 113 wickets at an average of 30.27.
After Harbhajan Singh was dropped from the Test team in 2011, Ojha had begun to forge a successful partnership with R. Ashwin. During the 2011/12 season, he claimed 5 or more wickets nine times.
He was also the highest wicket-taker during the 2012 series against England which India lost 1-2. However, with the emergence of Ravindra Jadeja, Ojha soon lost his place as Ashwin’s premier partner in the Test team.
He, however, continued to play Test cricket for India till the 2013 series against the West Indies.
Ojha claimed ten wickets in Sachin Tendulkar’s final Test and was adjudged the “Player of the Match”. But little did he know that it would also prove to be his final Test for Team India.
A home conditions specialist, Ojha was banned from bowling due to suspect action in 2014 and he was never considered for selection again.
Manoj Tiwary
One of the biggest unfulfilled stores of Indian cricket in the past 20 years, it will forever be a mystery as to why Manoj Tiwary never got a chance to play consistently for the national team despite his stellar performances in domestic cricket and in whatever chances he got to play for India.
Tiwary made his ODI debut for India against Australia at the Gabba during the 2008 CB series but it was only during the 2011/12 season that he got regular chances to play for the country.
He scored his maiden ton during the 5th ODI against the West Indies in 2011 but was once again dropped from the team. The Bengal cricketer made a return to the side for the Sri Lanka series in mid-2012 where he scored a 65 in the 4th ODI but he was once again dumped as the Indian management continued to back Rohit Sharma despite his lean patch.
Tiwary played a few ODIs in 2014-15 against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe before being dropped forever. He did not play a single Test for his country despite his brilliant FC record.
In 125 FC games, Manoj Tiwary racked up 8965 runs at an average of 50.36 with 27 tons. His List-A numbers are equally good. In 163 50-over games, the Bengal cricketer scored 5466 runs at an average of 42.37 with 6 three-figure scores.
Robin Uthappa
Another supremely talented cricketer from the mid-2000s who should have played a lot more for India than he eventually did, is Karnataka’s Robin Uthappa.
A flamboyant cricketer blessed with the ability to take down attacks with both textbook as well as unorthodox cricketing shots, Robin Uthappa played a plethora of brilliant knocks for Team India during 2006-08 following his dream debut against England in early 2006 where he smashed a whirlwind 86.
Uthappa helped India gun down a total in excess of 300 during the 2007 NatWest Trophy and he backed it up with some impactful innings during the 2007 T20 World Cup.
However, his form dipped after the 2008 Asia Cup and with the emergence of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, Uthappa was sidelined from the national team. He continued to score runs in the IPL and for Karnataka and after a stellar 2013/14 season, he once again earned a call-up to the Indian team. However, lack of consistency once again proved to be his bane and he was once again sidelined in 2015.
Uthappa represented India in 46 ODIs and 13 T20Is and managed just 934 and 249 runs at an average of 25.94 and 24.9 respectively.
Pravin Amre
A prolific run-scorer in domestic cricket, a batsman who was the epitome of grit, composure, resilience, Pravin Amre is another cricketer who should have played more Test cricket for Team India than he eventually did.
Belonging to a rare breed of batters who have made a Test hundred on debut on overseas soil, Pravin Amre gave a good account of himself as he smashes a classy hundred against the likes of Donald, Pringle, McMillan in Durban in 1992.
However, Amre, who continued to score heavily in domestic cricket, was unceremoniously dropped from the Test team two seasons later.
Amre, who holds the record for the highest individual score (246) in a Duleep Trophy fixture, featured in just 11 Tests in which he racked up 425 runs at an average of 42.5 with three 50s and one hundred.
As far as his domestic numbers are concerned, he scored 5815 runs in 86 FC games at an average of 48.86 with 17 tons.
Amre is now actively involved in coaching where he has honed the skills of several upcoming cricketers.
Laxman Sivaramakrishnan
A flawed genius who took the cricketing world by storm by claiming three successive six-wicket-hauls in Test cricket, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan is yet another example of a child prodigy who could never back up his initial success with consistent performances at the international level.
Having made his Test debut as a 17-year-old against the West Indies, Sivaramakrishnan was on the top of the world in 1985 following his stupendous success in both forms of the game.
He had just played a pivotal role in India’s World Championship of Cricket triumph in Australia and had backed it up with 23 wickets against England in his first series on home soil.
But that was about it for Siva. He couldn’t back up his initial success and soon found himself out of the Indian team. He made a return to the side for the 1987 World Cup but with minimal success.
The emergence of Anil Kumble in the coming years meant that the ‘boy wonder’ was forever consigned to the wilderness. LSK played a total of 9 Tests and 16 ODIs for Team India in which he claimed a total of 41 wickets. He last played for India at the tender age of 22.
Irfan Pathan
For cricket fans of 2000s, Irfan Pathan will forever remain an unfulfilled dream, a folk hero, who slayed hearts for fun.
Having broken in the Indian team during the 2003-04 tour of Australia, Irfan Pathan turned heads with his ability to move the ball both ways and at pace. That he could nail the yorker at will made him even more potent.
Pathan soon established himself as the leader of the pack between 2004-06 but a combination of factors which includes the team management’s obsession with turning him into an all-rounder, the change in his bowling action that resulted in him losing the ability to swing the ball at pace and poor handling by the management meant that Pathan was no longer the first-choice seamer by the time 2007 rolled around.
He, however, reinvented himself into a seam-bowling all-rounder and came up with brilliant performances during the 2007 T20 WC and the succeeding tour of Australia where he played a stellar role with both bat and ball to help India win the Perth Test.
However, he was dropped from the Test team during the home series against South Africa and was never considered again.
A string of injuries and the lack of support by the team management meant that Pathan remained out of favor from white-ball formats for the next three years.
He made a return to the ODI and T20I team in 2012 but despite him taking a five-wicket haul against Sri Lanka, he never played another 50-over game for India again.
Pathan, who announced his retirement in 2020, claimed a total of 301 wickets in 173 international games besides scoring 2821 runs.
Also Read: 10 Cricketers Of Indian Origin Who Played International Cricket Against India
Tagged:
Irfan Pathan Laxman Sivaramakrishnan Maninder Singh Manoj Tiwary Pragyan Ojha Pravin Amre Robin Uthappa Vinod Kambli
