5 Indian cricketers who have played in the ICC Champions Trophy but never played in the World Cup

The ICC Champions Trophy 2017 final is upon us as India and Pakistan get set to take on each other in what promises to be a mouth-watering clash at the Oval in London.

Over the years, the Champions Trophy has seen a lot of great performances by Indian batsmen and bowlers who have even used the tournament as a Launchpad.

While there are a few cricketers who have constantly featured in both the Champions Trophy and the 50 over world cup, there are some others who have played in only one of the two.

In this article, we take a look at five such cricketers who played in only the Champions Trophy and never in the World Cup.

Abhishek Nayar

A prolific run-getter in the domestic circuit for many years now, Abhishek Nayar has not got the credit he deserves. Having proved himself with the bat and the ball for the Mumbai state team, he was included in the squad for the ICC Champions Trophy in 2009.

He did not make much of an impact and did not get a chance to make a mark for himself. He featured in only one match against West Indies after which India were knocked out of the tournament.

Earlier that year, he had made his ODI debut against the same opposition and in all the three games that he played during his career, Nayar did not get a chance to bat in any of them. That Champions Trophy match is so far the all-rounder’s last outing in India colours.

Praveen Kumar

A master of swinging the ball, Praveen Kumar was the go-to bowler for India between 2007-11. He bamboozled batsmen with his ability to swing the ball both ways and will always be remembered for his match-winning spell in the historic CB series win down under in the 2007-08 season.

His performance in India’s dreadful campaign against England in 2011 will go down in history as well with him having his name up in the Lords honour board.

He featured in the 2009 Champions Trophy and was one of the most economical bowlers for India. In the two matches he played, he picked up three wickets with a splendid economy rate of 3.29.

Unfortunately, he was not given a chance to feature in the 2011 World Cup which India won.

Ramesh Powar

The stocky right arm off spin bowler will go down as one of the legends of Indian domestic cricket. He played a huge role in Mumbai’s overwhelming success in the Ranji Trophy over the years and was not given too many opportunities to make a mark for himself for the national team.

Unfortunately, the Indian side could not afford another spinner with the likes of Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble doing the job for them on a regular basis.

However, he did play 31 ODIs for India between 2004 and 2007 including the Champions Trophy in 2006 where India were knocked out in the group stages itself. He featured in only one match against England and was the best bowler picking up three wickets and giving away only 22 runs in 8 overs.

He never features in a world cup for India in his career which spanned over 15 years.

Ishant Sharma

Ishant Sharma started off as one of the fastest bowlers in the Indian cricket team and rose to prominence after an incredible outing against Australia in the 2007-08 season. He will always be remembered for troubling Ricky Ponting and dismissing him with some brilliant bowling.

However, he soon faded away and lost a lot of his pace which was his biggest weapon. His performances began to dip and he soon found himself out of the team on a number of occasions especially in the shorter format of the game.

He was included in the squad for the 2009 Champions Trophy and played two matches for the Men in Blue. He did not achieve too much success as he picked up three wickets with an economy rate of close to a run a ball.

Unfortunately, he has not featured in a single world cup game so far.

VVS Laxman

One of the best Test batsmen to have come out of the Indian ranks, VVS Laxman never found his true calling in the shorter format of the game. He was one of the unluckiest cricketers to have never featured in a world cup for India despite playing 86 ODIs for them.

He missed out on a spot in the 2003 world cup but found himself in contention for the 2002 and 2004 Champions Trophy, the former which India won.

He managed to score only 26 runs in two innings in the 2002 edition but performed a lot better in 2004 scoring 82 runs with one half-century to his name.