With the constant evolution of cricket, and with the merciless competition that the game has been witnessing with every passing day, you will always have to be at the pinnacle of your game to be a part of the team regularly. One sloppy show and you will be shown the exit in a matter of seconds, irrespective of your monumental heroics and all those several plaudits that you have earned painstakingly over the ages.
We will look at a team of eleven such Indian cricketers who were touted to be the flag-bearers of the brilliance but failed miserably at the bigger stage. To make matters worse, the billing label slapped on them was stripped in no time.
Abhinav Mukund
One of the most consistent names in the domestic frays of India and also a phenomenal performer in the U-19 national squad, Mukund was one of the brightest stars that the nation pinned their hopes on. However, at the time he was selected for the team, Murali Vijay was relentlessly dominant and chances of this young opener making it to the starting eleven seemed slimmer with every passing day.
Despite smashing an 81 in his limited appearances in Test cricket, Mukund failed to sustain himself and couldn’t leave a concrete mark in the contests that he was a part of, thereby fading away into oblivion.
Robin Uthappa
Another bright star in the Indian sky, Robin Uthappa had a lot of hopes pinned on him in his early days, as the wicket-keeper batsman was one of the most instrumental cricketers that helped India to reach the finals of the 2007 T-20 World Cup.
Despite being a very hard-hitter of the ball, Uthappa failed to make a lasting impact due to his headlong state in the game. Never known to play an anchor, his average was pretty much on the lower side. However, T-20 cricket was his more favorable spectrum to deliver the big knocks. However, he failed miserably in the shortest format of the game too.
With all said and done, Uthappa has been an astronomical force in the Indian Premier League and went on to play several match-defining knocks for his team.
Saurabh Tiwary
Hailing all the way from Jamshedpur, Saurabh Tiwary made it big for himself in the Indian Premier League. His performances in the other domestic affairs also improved considerably with the passing of time. However, his tale was that of a contrasting fate.
Despite being a decent batsman who used to come down either in the 4th or the 5th position, Saurabh Tiwary was locked in a head-on battle with Yuvraj or Dhoni who were Gods in those positions.
As expected, this talented left-hander didn’t get further chances and shortly had to stay content with the domestic annual extravaganza, hosted by BCCI in the form of IPL.
Piyush Chawla
Another probable fairytale met an untimely end as it was extremely difficult for this talented leg-break bowler to make any headway for himself in the national team as Amit Mishra and Harbhajan Singh were savoring considerable success in the Indian squad, on the home turf and also overseas.
Featuring only in 3 Test matches, he still managed to register a career-best of 4 for 69 that riveted fanfare for all the right reasons. Plagued with injuries for a major part of his career his story failed to take flight. However, Chawla has been a phenomenal spin partner to Sunil Narine in Kolkata’s pursuit of IPL glory.
Manoj Tiwary
Touted as one of the biggest fear of his opponents, Manoj Tiwary is probably one of the best domestic cricketers, India ever had. Haplessly, every single time he has been promoted to the national side, he failed to live up to his billing.
Only playing 12 matches for the nation, Manoj Tiwary smashed a century and a half-century which attests to the fact that he was a decent contender for a regular call up to the nation.
However, due to cut and run a competition that went on in the Indian ranks, he failed to survive in the international circuit and was shortly reduced to the Indian Premier League and the domestic frays which he was always so good at playing.
Gurkeerat Mann Singh
Gurkeerat put up a stellar performance for India A that upstaged a lot of eyes at him. Alongside his brilliance for the India A squad, he was also excelling in the tormenting IPL which made the selectors believe that given an opportunity, Gurkeerat can be a massive promise in the Indian middle order.
However, when the time arrived for the youngster, it was a full-blown fiasco and all that the lad could manage from his 3 games were 13 runs. There was also speculation for his national dreams.
Pawan Negi
Deemed as a mystery man for Delhi Daredevils whose spasmodic bursts of brilliance took the Indian roster by storm, he fell victim to his limitation of variations.
Tagged as monotonous and one of the most predictable spinners in the latter phase of his career, his hopes of making a cut for the national side dissipated in no time. This young lad had some considerably modest batting up his sleeves but that did not do much good to his sinking cause either.
Rishi Dhawan
A peer of Hardik Pandya and Vijay Shankar, the younger version of Dhawan got obliterated from cricket only due to his exorbitant complacency.
Despite showing initial signs of promise in Indian Premier League for Kings XI Punjab, Dhawan shortly started finding himself out of his elements and his performances nosedived into a receding tailspin, from which he could never recover.
Pankaj Singh
Held in high regard for his mean fast bowling, it seemed that as soon as the national call up arrived, this bowler lost his edge and his deliveries hardly crossed the 130 kays mark. With the limited opportunities that he was given against Sri Lanka and England, he was nothing short of being pathetic, not even coming close to the hype that surrounded him.
Parvez Rasool
The sole moniker from Jammu and Kashmir is one of the brightest names in the Indian canon that lost his way in the middle despite a promising start to his national career.
A decent all-rounder known for his batting in the middle order raised the speculations of a perfect successor to Yuvraj Singh but his batting was nowhere close to the first-hand destruction which the southpaw unleashed upon his counterparts.
His bowling didn’t budge many timbres either as the Islanders hammered him all around the park for his quota of 4 overs. With Yuzvendra Chahal showing great signs of early prominence, Rasool was taken out of the equation, once and for all.
Sreenath Aravind
A consistent performer for Karnataka, Sreenath was known for his medium pace that showed considerable signs of putting a spanner in his opponent’s plans.
However, the decision of replacing the experienced Zaheer Khan with Sreenath by the selectors backfired in the worst way possible, as he failed to produce much movement and his pace was nowhere close to that of Zaheer’s.
With too much spillage from his emasculated bowling, the selectors chose to axe him off, once and for all.
