Playing in an ODI World Cup, and winning it, is a dream for every cricketer. Even with the T20 culture on the rise, and Test cricket getting a boost with the World Test Championship, the WC, which comes every four years unlike a T20 WC or a WTC Final which is a biennial event, the 50-over WC remains the pinnacle of the sport.
Most legendary and successful players have featured in at least one Cup for their country, and many have made multiple appearances.
It comes as a bit of a shock that a few players who had prolonged success for several years in international cricket didn’t feature in a single WC match.
It is no surprise that even a few great Indian players never featured in the tournament because of the competition for places in the Indian team. Over the 21st century, multiple players have often been fighting for a spot in India’s squad and the playing XIs, which meant even some good cricketers have had to sadly miss playing in the tournament.
Here are 3 big-name Indian cricketers who never played in a ODI World Cup match:
Ishant Sharma
Delhi fast bowler Ishant Sharma had a decent length of ODI career: he played in 80 ODIs from 2007 to 2016, picking up 115 wickets and became a senior bowler in the latter part of his career.
His ODI career spanned two ODI World Cups – 2011 and 2015. Ishant Sharma wasn’t picked for the 2011 World Cup squad as it already included Zaheer, Nehra, Munaf and Sreesanth, while he got injured ahead of the 2015 World Cup and missed the tournament due to a knee injury, and was replaced by Mohit Sharma.
VVS Laxman
One of the legendary Test batters is VVS Laxman, who played in 134 Tests. He also featured in in 86 ODI matches between 1998 to 2006, but missed getting picked in both 1999 World Cup and 2003 World Cup.
Laxman averaged a decent 30 with the bat in ODI cricket in his career. He was learned to be in contention to get picked in the 2003 World Cup squad, but the selectors preferred all-rounder Dinesh Mongia over Laxman.
Irfan Pathan
Irfan Pathan is perhaps the most shocking name of successful Indian players who never played an ODI World Cup match.
Even though Irfan played in 120 ODI matches from 2004 to 2012, and was a proper all-rounder with rare skillset, he never featured in India’s playing XI in an ODI World Cup game.
He was part of the squad in the 2007 World Cup in West Indies, but didn’t get to play a single game as India crashed out in the first round itself with just 3 matches.
