Top 5 cricketers who never played for India

Amarjeet Kaypee

A big man for the big matches. The bigger the occasion, the better he performed. 7623 runs in the Ranji Trophy, 27 tons, back-to-back seasons aggregating 800 plus runs with 8 hundreds, the only batsman in Indian cricket history to score 150 plus in two innings of the same match in a Ranji Trophy game – still was never considered fit enough to feature in Team India. But it was not his records; the hallmark of Kaypee’s batting was his sound technique, his concentration and his unquenchable thirst for runs. Kaypee was one of those whose career coincided with the greats like Sachin Tendulkar and Md. Azharuddin but the saddest thing is that when you search his name on the Google images, you will find only one passport size image of once the highest run getter in the Ranji Trophy. Ignorance? Well, you decide!

Special Mention

Utpal Chatterjee

Anil Kumble once said that during the 90’s the best left arm spinner was Venkatapathy Raju, but there is one man who would have a thing or two to say about that. Utpal Chatterjee was one of those unfortunate cricketers who missed out on a long career at the international level in spite of being one of the best in the country during his time. Though he got selected for the Indian team at the age of 30, his international foray ended with just 3 ODIs to his name. Nicknamed ‘David’, after the Aussie Alan Davidson, Utpal Chatterjee carried Bengal’s bowling attack on his shoulders for more than two decades before calling it quits with 499 wickets to his name. Though he did play for India, he deserves a special mention in this list because of the injustice handed to him by the Indian selectors.

That was an elite list of cricketers who deserved to but never played for India. A few missed out thanks to outstanding peers while a few through ignorance. In a country that has always produced quality cricketers, there will always be the lucky Vijays and the not-so-lucky Tiwarys. One has to accept that some will make it; a few will live in their shadows but as Rajinder Goel said….

“My job is to play cricket and perform well. The rest is up to the selectors to choose me or not…..”