Hardik Pandya is one of the generational cricketers India have currently. His rise was steep as he shot to fame first in his IPL debut season with Mumbai Indians in 2015 and soon after, in January 2016, the Baroda all-rounder made his T20I debut for India, which was followed by ODI debut in the same year and Test debut the next year.
While Hardik Pandya hasn’t played a red-ball game since 2018 due to his back injury issues, he has been a phenomenal asset for Team India, Mumbai Indians, and then Gujarat Titans, not only because of his all-round abilities, but also owing to his leadership qualities, which saw him captain GT to the IPL 2022 title and through to the IPL 2023 final.
Pandya has 87 T20I matches under his belt so far, and is currently the deputy to Rohit Sharma in limited-overs cricket. He’s touted to take over India’s white-ball captaincy after the World Cup 2023.
The year 2016 was one of the transition period years in India’s T20I team which saw a few players making debut apart from Hardik, but most of them faded away soon and couldn’t make it big in international T20Is.
Here are 3 players who made their debut in the same year as Hardik Pandya, but faded away:
Pawan Negi
A left-arm finger spinner from Delhi, Pawan Negi impressed everyone in the 2015 IPL and got his India T20I cap in 2016 – a similar story to Hardik Pandya. But, Negi, who played for Delhi and RCB in the IPL, didn’t get any more chances after his T20I debut. In only his single T20I game, in the 2016 Asia Cup against UAE, Negi returned with good figures of 1/16 but never got to play for India again.
Mandeep Singh
One of the most talented domestic and IPL batters, Mandeep Singh, has had a long IPL and domestic career, which started in 2010, with decent amount of success. But his T20I career only lasted 3 T20Is in Zimbabwe in 2016, where he scored 87 runs with a best of 52*. However, because of India having a slew of other top-order options, and his IPL returns not being earth-shattering, Mandeep was never given another opportunity after that.
Barinder Sran
A left-arm fast bowler who came with great promise was Barinder Sran. The Punjab seamer was fast-tracked into the T20I side, despite having little domestic experience. He was brilliant in his debut T20I series, against Zimbabwe in 2016, picking 6 wickets in 2 matches. He also won the 2016 IPL with SRH. Yet, Sran was never picked for India’s T20I team again, surprisingly.
