5 IPL superstars who retired from international cricket without playing a Test match ft. Nicholas Pooran, Yusuf Pathan

IPL has become the most-followed cricket league in the world. It is among the highest-valued sports properties across the globe, with athletes from different parts of the world dreaming to become a part of this competition.

One of the biggest reasons behind cricketers' desire to play in the IPL is the money involved in the tournament. Franchises do not shy away from spending crores of rupees to acquire the talents they'd love to have in their squads.

Despite the growing popularity of IPL, quite a few cricketers still rate Test cricket as the number one format. In fact, IPL 2025 winner Virat Kohli mentioned after winning the trophy that he rates Test cricket five levels above everything else.

It shows how difficult it is for a player to crack Test cricket even if he is a certified IPL superstar. In this listicle now, we will look at the five such superstars who retired from international cricket without playing a single Test match.

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#1 Nicholas Pooran

Nicholas Pooran stunned the cricket universe by announcing his retirement from international cricket at the age of 29. Generally, players call it a day on their careers in their late 30s, but Pooran did it even before celebrating his 30th birthday.

Pooran turned up for the Lucknow Super Giants recently, where he won the award for smashing the most sixes in the season. The West Indies batter played 61 ODIs and 106 T20Is for his team, but he never played a Test. Notably, he played only five first-class games, where he aggregated 319 runs.

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#2 Yusuf Pathan

Former Indian all-rounder Yusuf Pathan was a member of the Rajasthan Royals team that won the inaugural season in 2008. He was also a part of the Kolkata Knight Riders squad that lifted the trophy in 2012 and 2014.

While Yusuf was present in India's 2007 T20 World Cup and 2011 ODI World Cup-winning teams, he never received a chance to play Test cricket. Yusuf played 100 first-class matches and was active in the red-ball arena for almost 20 years, but he never found a place in India's Test team.

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#3 Ambati Rayudu

Another multi-time IPL-winning cricketer to feature on the list is Ambati Rayudu. The right-handed batter received a dream farewell in the Indian Premier League. He played a huge role in Chennai Super Kings' triumph in the final match of the 2023 season.

Rayudu also won the trophy with Mumbai Indians. In international cricket, he was a part of India's playing XI in 55 ODIs and six T20Is. Despite scoring 6,151 runs in 97 first-class matches, Rayudu never received a chance to don the whites for India.

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#4 Kedar Jadhav

One of the few players to score a triple century in first-class cricket and win the IPL trophy, Kedar Jadhav, surprisingly, never got a chance to play Test cricket. Jadhav scored 6,100 runs in 87 first-class matches, including a career-best 327 against Uttar Pradesh.

However, the middle-order batter never made it to the Indian Test team. After playing 73 ODIs and nine T20Is for India, Jadhav retired from all forms of cricket in June 2024.

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#5 Kieron Pollard

Kieron Pollard was the backbone of the Mumbai Indians' middle-order during his legendary IPL career. He picked up 69 wickets and scored 3,412 runs in 189 matches.

While Pollard got to play 123 ODIs and 101 T20Is for West Indies, the all-rounder never made it to the Test playing XI. It is pertinent to note that Pollard played 27 first-class matches, but he announced his retirement in 2022 with no Test caps to his name.