Rohit Sharma is one of the biggest names in world cricket and has one of the largest fan following in India. The immensely talented batsman from Nagpur made his India debut back in 2007 and in his first year in international cricket, Rohit Sharma helped India win the T20 World Cup in South Africa.
The right-hander, though, had a stop-start career as he couldn’t cement his place in the side and was shuffled in different roles until 2013 when MS Dhoni promoted him as an opener in the Champions Trophy. That move by the former India captain changed the career of Sharma and turned around history books in Indian cricket as Rohit went on to break and create many records at the top of the order in both the white-ball formats.
He started his Test career in 2013 but injuries and lack of form hurt him, until, again, he was given the opening role in 2019 and he eventually managed to seal his place as the India opener in the Test team too.
Among Indian openers, Rohit is the third-leading run-scorer, behind only Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar. Now, Sharma is the captain of the team across the three formats.
At around and after the time of Rohit Sharma’s debut in 2007, a few other batters too started their India careers. However, most of them couldn’t have as big and flourishing as career as Rohit’s.
Here are 3 batters who made their debut with Rohit Sharma but faded away:
Manoj Tiwary
Bengal’s Manoj Tiwary had an unfulfilled India career. A highly talented and skillful batter, Tiwary got his debut ODI cap in 2008 and played the last of his 12 ODIs in 2015 along with 3 T20I caps in between. Tiwary managed an average of 26 and strike rate of 71 with 1 century and 1 fifty in ODIs.
Manoj Tiwary went on to become a domestic legend with close to 10,000 first-class runs and over 8000 runs in white-ball cricket.
The 37-year-old recently also entered politics and was elected as the minister for youth services and sports in West Bengal.
Abhishek Nayar
A left-handed batsman and medium pacer from Mumbai, Abhishek Nayar made his India ODI debut in 2009. However, got to bat in only 1 innings, wherein he scored 0 runs off 7 balls, and never played for India again.
A former Mumbai Indians batsman, Nayar played domestic cricket till 2018 before being appointed to the coaching staff of KKR.
Subramaniam Badrinath
Hailed as the crisis man at Chennai Super Kings, classical Tamil Nadu batsman Subramaniam Badrinath made his India debut in 2008. However, Badrinath couldn’t translate his success in domestic cricket to international cricket.
He featured in 7 ODIs and 2 Tests with just a solitary fifty-plus score. He continued to plunder big runs in domestic cricket until calling time in 2018. Recently, he turned up for the India Legends and the Maharajas.
