It has often been seen in the cricketing world that some cricketers burst onto the scene with a bang and are tipped as the next generation superstars, but within a few years, they fade away and completely go out of the picture.
While most of these cricketers were pretty good skill-wise, they were probably not as strong temperamentally as some of their counterparts and in some cases; the injuries didn’t help their cause either.
Here are 5 cricketers who faded away after good starts to their careers:
#1 Praveen Kumar
Praveen Kumar was a genuine swing bowler. He didn’t have express pace, but the fact that he could move the ball both ways in the air caused trouble for a lot of players early on. However, Praveen had a couple of injury layoffs around 2011 and he never quite regained his consistency after the injuries.
#2 Munaf Patel
Munaf Patel, when he first turned up, had got a lot of pace and since he was fairly tall as well, he could get a little bit of extra bounce from a length which often caught the batsmen in awkward positions.
However, Munaf gradually lost his pace quite a bit and he was nothing more than a medium pace bowler at the fag-end of his career. He was still very accurate though and played a key role in India’s triumph in 2011 ODI World Cup.
#3 Pragyan Ojha
Ojha was a wonderful red ball bowler as he could kept pitching the ball in one area for a long time and he had the ability to turn the ball as well, however he lost his place in the Indian set-up once Ravindra Jadeja made his way into the national team.
Since Jadeja could bat as well, he was preferred over Ojha and Ojha was never able to earn his place back.
#4 Unmukt Chand
Unmukt Chand was tipped as the next big thing in Indian cricket when he scored a match winning hundred in the final of the U19 World Cup in 2012 and helped Indian clinch the trophy.
But, Unmukt’s rise in senior cricket wasn’t quite as smooth as it was expected. He played a few good knocks here and there in first class cricket as well as in IPL, but wasn’t consistent for a long period of time.
Unmukt is not in India’s plans at the moment.
#5 Yusuf Pathan
Yusuf Pathan had the power game and he was one of the finishers India had marked as a long term option along with Suresh Raina. While Raina pursued his career a bit longer, Pathan was dropped soon after the 2011 ODI World Cup because of lack of consistency and was never called back.
Pathan, however, played some wonderful innings in the IPL after 2011 and was involved in two IPL triumphs with Kolkata Knight Riders.
