Indian players who unfortunately missed out on the ICC World Cup

#3 Rohit Sharma (2011 World Cup)

Selectors decided to go with an extra bowler in place of Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma emerged on the scene in 2007 and till 2009, the stylish batsmen played some crucial knocks to give his team good starts. His contribution in the 2008 CB series was impervious but after that, inconsistency crept in his game which troubled him in the following years. On his day, he was this box of talent who would smash bowlers effortlessly and on others, he just failed to click.

Before the squad for the 2011 World Cup was announced, Sharma had the highest score of a mere 44 in the previous 11 ODIs that he had featured in. On top of that, India had a safe lineup which selected itself in the team. It was difficult for Sharma to get a game ahead of the likes of Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina.

It was later revealed that Sharma missed a place in the squad by a whisker as the selection committee went ahead with the idea of having an extra bowler in the squad. If not for a bowler's place, Rohit Sharma would have come in place of Yuvraj Singh who was also out of form at the time.

But Yuvi's bowling capacity helped him get the nod ahead of Sharma. Rohit had once stated in an interview that missing the 2011 World Cup was a big blow to him but it generated a fire inside him to work even harder and he did just that in the matches after the World Cup.