IPL History: Four unlucky Indian cricketers in IPL

The IPL buzz is on. All the young players who have been auctioned are waiting for their opportunity to get into the eleven and play to their full potential. On the other hand, the experienced players are looking for some match practice leading to the World Cup. A lot of players got swapped between teams before the auction got underway. There were 351 players in the auction in which 60 of them went unsold.

The talking point of this year’s auction was the sensational bowler from Tamil Nadu, Varun Chakravarthy who was sold for ₹8.4 crore. Sam Curran was the most expensive overseas player who went for ₹7.2 crore.

The tradition has always been such that budding talents are included in the squad to encourage and support them. There were plenty of talented players in the previous seasons of IPL who were extremely talented but were overshadowed by other performers. Let us take a look at them.

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#4 Suryakumar Yadav

Suryakuumar

Yadav

Suryakumar Yadav is a player of immense capability. Having played for Mumbai in the domestic format, he went on to score some big runs for the team. This earned him a spot in the Mumbai Indians squad in the 2012 season. It was unfortunate that he didn’t play a single game because of the presence of veteran players.

Once again in the next season, he wasn’t able to get enough games under his belt. In the 2014 auction, he was auctioned for ₹70 lakh to KKR. This young lad impressed the selectors playing the cameo role extremely well down the order. His strike-rate of 130 became the talking point as it won many games for the team.

In spite of such efforts, his recognition was quite limited. He was at the door waiting to get into the national squad but somehow missed it. After the 2018 auction, he plays for Mumbai Indians and is hoping to be able to put up a good performance for his side.

#3 Dhawal Kulkarni

Dhawal Kulkarni

Dhawal Kulkarni has been a key frontline bowler for every team he has played for. Right from his days in the domestic circuit, he was very consistent which earned him a place in the Indian team against the Kiwis in 2009 but wasn’t included in the eleven. By then, he had made his mark in the IPL for Mumbai Indians.

After leaving Mumbai Indians, he was part of Rajasthan Royals squad for 2014 and 2015 season where his form dipped gradually. He recovered well taking 18 wickets in the 9th edition for Gujarat Lions. As of now he is playing for RR franchise.

Even though he is talented, not many opportunities came in his way. He played a major role in winning the quadrangular series for the India A team in 2014 and lead Mumbai for their 40th Ranji Title. A player of such caliber surely deserved better opportunities.

#2 Manvinder Bisla

Kolkata Knight Riders won the IPL title in 2012 and Manvinder Bisla’s contribution in the final can never be forgotten. This wicket-keeper batsman from Goa scored 89 off 48 balls to give his team their maiden IPL title.

Initially, he was part of Deccan Chargers that won the title in 2009. He then moved to KXIP in 2010 where he played his first match. He played his role scoring over 200 runs in 10 matches. He was then auctioned to KKR in 2011 where he opened the batting with Jacques Kallis.

He was responsible for a lot of dismissals justifying his role behind the stumps. In 2011 and 2012 he was part of the squad in 12 of the matches only. He had to wait until 2013 to play as a full-time keeper for but had lost his touch by then. He was then sold to Royal Challengers Bangalore for the 2015 edition as a reserve keeper. He has not been part of IPL after that.

#1 Unmukt Chand

Unmukt Chand was considered the next big sensation after Virat Kohli when he led the Under-19 team to a World Cup victory in 2012. But that was not the case for the unlucky lad. He made his IPL debut in 2011 for Delhi but was part of the squad in just 2 matches that season.

This trend continued in the next editions where he played only a handful of matches for his team. He was sold to Rajasthan franchise for the 7th edition but failed to get matches under his belt due to injury concerns. In the 2015 season, he was transferred to Mumbai Indians but spent most of the tournament on the bench as he failed to deliver for the team.

In the 2018 auction, he went unsold which was a huge disappointment for the talented Delhi Batsman. It is a shame that someone as good as Chand wasn’t provided with enough chances.