Unlucky XI: A playing XI consisting of the most unlucky current Indian cricketers

Throughout the past decade, there have been some extremely unlucky players who have repeatedly been ignored despite stellar performances in the domestic circuit and the Indian A teams. Some of these players have been ignored by the selectors for no particular reason, while some of the players have missed out due to heavy competition in the side. Let's take a look at team India's current most unlucky XI.

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Top Order

Mayank Agarwal

England Lions v India A - Tri-Series International

Mayank Agarwal may consider himself the unlucky cricketer to have played for India in this current decade. After breaking numerous records during the 2017-2018 domestic season, where he scored over 2000 runs, he was expected to waltz into the team. But every time it looked as if he would get in, he always ended up being ignored. Mayank Agarwal finally made it into the Test team for the Australian tour where he performed commendably, but he is yet to get a look at limited overs cricket. This may be due to an exceptional top order but then the question arises why not fit him into the middle order. This is enough to merit him a place in this playing XI.

Ajinkya Rahane

ICC World Twenty20 India 2016: Semi-Final: West Indies v India

Ajinkya Rahane is a classic case of too much competition for one slot and also the bias against players who struggle to play pace. Ajinkya Rahane has been an integral part of the Test team for a while now, but struggles to represent his country in ODIs. He has performed consistently in all the opportunities he has gotten, an example of which is the 6 consecutive ODI half-centuries that he scored between 2017 and 2018. However, he was dropped based on just 2 failures in South Africa which is absolutely unfair considering that he had performed in the 6 matches prior to that.

Middle order

Manoj Tiwary

Australia 'A' v India 'A' - Quadrangular Series Final

Manoj Tiwary is one player who will be forever puzzled about why he was dropped from the team right after scoring a man of the match century against the West Indies. 14 matches later he received another chance and took 4 wickets while also scoring 21 runs. Next match he scored a brilliant half-century. But, what transpired after that has left people scratching their heads all this time. After these brilliant performance's he only played 2 more ODIs and that too in different years.

Karun Nair

Australia A v India A

Karun Nair was a case of sheer apathy by the selectors. Despite becoming just the second Indian to score a triple century in Test cricket, he was ignored for the subsequent series. Furthermore, despite being in the squad for the tour of England, did not play a match. Even Hanuma Vihari, who was flown in as a backup for the fourth Test, got a chance to play ahead of him. It was a plain case of apathy by the selectors as he could have spent this time playing domestic cricket.

Manish Pandey

Australia v India - Game 5

Manish Pandey is perhaps the most underrated current cricketer. People say that he has gotten a lot of chances to prove himself, but in reality, he has received just 18 chances. Furthermore, he has never been given a long run to prove himself in ODI cricket and is often dropped after just 1 or 2 failures. Due to this, he often gets dismissed due to a lack of confidence and not anything technical. Furthermore, he has one of the highest T20 International averages in the world, behind just Virat Kohli, Babar Azam, and KL Rahul. This is enough evidence to suggest that he has it in him. He was given a long run in T20s which is why he garnered results. Then there is a question of why he was dropped from T20 international squad. These reasons are enough to suggest how unlucky he is.

Dinesh Karthik (WK)

Australia v India - ODI: Game 2

Dinesh Karthik is one of the most unlucky current Indan cricketers. Firstly, there is one major thing about Dinesh Karthik that makes absolutely no sense, why wasn't he in the squad for the Australian tour. His World Cup spot wasn't completely guaranteed, so he ideally should have given him an opportunity to compete against Pant for a spot in the World Cup squad. This, in general, shows how much faith they have in Rishabh Pant which he hasn't backed up. There is a saying that goes "In search of gold, we are neglecting the diamond we have." This saying perfectly shows Dinesh Karthik. While the Indian team is supposedly searching for the next MS Dhoni in Pant, why search if you already have someone even better or at least performing exceedingly well? Due to these reasons and some other reasons stated in the article below, Dinesh Karthik can call himself currently the most unlucky Indian cricketer.

Bowlers

Mohit Sharma

Australia v India: Semi Final - 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup

Mohit Sharma is one of the most unlucky Indian cricketers. He has been consistently performing in the domestic circuit but has not been rewarded with many opportunities in the international circuit. Umesh is currently severely overshadowed by the likes of Mohammed Shami, Bhuveneshwar, Kumar, and Jasprit Bumrah. In fact, the main reason behind him losing his place in the squad is the emergence of Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuveneshwar Kumar post the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup and an ankle injury.

Krunal Pandya

Australia v India - T20

Krunal Pandya has been performing well in the domestic circuit since 2016. Due to his exceptional domestic performances, he has been on the fringes of national selection for a while. When Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja fell out of favour with the Indian team, it looked as if he had finally made a move up the pecking order. When Hardik Pandya was sidelined from the Indian team due to an injury, it was thought that Krunal Pandya might get a look in but, surprisingly, Ravindra Jadeja was selected ahead of him. This decision raised quite a few eyebrows as Krunal Pandya was performing well in domestic cricket, while Ravindra Jadeja was clearly struggling even in the IPL.

Siddharth Kaul

Siddharth Kaul is a lethal death bowler

Siddharth Kaul is an Indian cricketer who has been an exceptional performer in the IPL in every season that he has played in. He has been impressive in the few matches that he has played so far, and has an exceptional strike rate of 14.5 in T20 Internationals. However, due to the outstanding performances of Bhuveneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah and now Mohammed Shami, he rarely gets a chance to represent India in the Blue.

Shardul Thakur

6th Momentum ODI: South Africa v India

Shardul Thakur is a wicket-taking right arm fast bowler who can bowl in excess of 145 kmph. He was impressive in most of the matches he has played but ended up being quite expensive. What should be noted about his bowling is that he has a good outswinger and has great pace. He is also the kind of hit the deck bowler who can extract bounce. These are signs of a great Test bowler which is why he has a Test cap. But, he got injured in just the second over of his Test debut and hasn't been in the team since then. He can consider himself unlucky to lose his place in the squad due to injury and then being replaced despite great domestic performances.

Amit Mishra

India v Sri Lanka - ICC World Twenty20 Bangladesh 2014 Final

When Amit Mishra first came into the scheme of things, he was directly competing with Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble. After Anil Kumble's retirement, Ashwin and Jadeja were selected in front of him. Once Ashwin and Jadeja were dropped post the champions trophy, Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal received opportunities. Life has done this to him and now it is unlikely that he will ever make a comeback considering his age. As he said in an interview, "life has been unlucky for him."