Four IPL Stars Who Never Made It Big With Team India
Despite successful seasons in the IPL, these cricketers never made it big for the senior side.
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The Indian Premier League (IPL) since its inception in 2008 has always been a breeding ground for domestic players. Several of them have graduated and went onto play for the Indian team.
The likes of Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel are the best example of this. All these players continued their great forms after they made it to the senior Indian team.
However, not all players were so fortunate. There have been some whose performances in the T20 league didn’t translate into international success.
Let’s take a look at these players.
1. Manpreet Gony
In the inaugural season of IPL in 2008, Manpreet Gony proved his worth while playing for Chennai Super Kings. He ended the season with 17 wickets and was one of the main reasons behind Chennai qualifying for the final in their maiden season. Only three bowlers had taken more wickets than Gony in that season, but he had a better economy rate than two of them. He ended the season as CSK's leading wicket-taker in the tournament, which led to his national call-up a month later for the 2008 Asia Cup.
Unfortunately, Gony couldn’t replicate his IPL performance for the national side. Playing in his first match against minnows Hong Kong, he finished the match wicketless. After the first match, Gony played his second match against Bangladesh, where he was the most expensive bowler and managed to pick up 2 wickets for 65 runs in 8 overs. Gony is yet to don the blue jersey after that match.
His performances in the following seasons of the IPL weren't even close to his debut performance and gradually he faded away.
2. Karn Sharma
With impressive performances in back-to-back season of the IPL, Karn Sharma justified the record fee of Rs 3.75 crore for a domestic uncapped player in the 2014 IPL auction.
In the 2013 IPL season, Sharma, playing for Hyderabad, picked up 11 wickets in 13 matches and had an outstanding economy of 6.6 runs per over, which more than impressive in a T20 game. He carried on the form to the next season as well where he picked up 15 wickets in 14 matches.
With his leg-spin and hitting prowess, Karn attracted the attention of the selectors, who picked him up for the England tour in 2014. In the tour, Karn went onto play in the solitary T20I at Birmingham, and ended with a decent figures of 1/28 from his four overs.
He had a forgetful One-Day International debut. He played only two ODIs against Sri Lanka in India, and went wicketless after bowling for 19 overs and giving away 125 runs in the process. After that, Karn never played for the Indian limited-overs side again.
3. Rahul Sharma
By 2011, it had become quite evident that spinners and slow bowlers were key to a team’s success in the IPL. It was the Indian spinners who had started making their mark from this season.
Five of the top seven wicket-takers in IPL 2011 were Indian spinners. Munaf Patel and Sreenath Arvind led the list of most wickets taken in 2011, but it was the uncapped Rahul Sharma who garnered lot of attention. The leggie, playing for the Pune Warriors, picked up 16 wickets at an economy rate of 5.46, which easily qualified as the best economy rate in the competition for that particular season.
With a superlative performances like that, Rahul didn’t take much time to be included in the senior squad the same year against West Indies. Unfortunately, he didn't make the most of his chances and only picked up 6 wickets from his four ODIs and three from his two T20Is. After that series in 2012, he hasn't gotten another chance to play for the country.
4. Sudeep Tyagi
Sudeep Tyagi, after being picked up by Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings, had to miss the the first season of the IPL in 2008 due to a stress fracture, but in the next season, he was right on the money from the start of the competition.
Sudeep had already made his debut for the India A side by then, but it was his lethal delivery to AB de Villiers, which uprooted his stumps in the 2009 season of the tournament, that brought the player international fame. His knack of keeping things tight throughout his four overs meant he was a good seaming option for India. Skipper Dhoni was quick to realise that and didn’t waste any time.
Sudeep made his debut in the ODIs against Sri Lanka in India. After that he had a forgettable T20I debut against Sri Lanka in December 2009, which turned out to be the only match he played in the format. He went onto play four ODIs after that. There was an initial fizzle as he finished with figures of 6.3-1-15-1 in his first ODI.
But unfortunately, that was the start and the end of matters for him as he only picked up two more wickets in his remaining three ODIs. He hasn't played for India since February 2010.
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