5 Indian all-rounders who disappeared after bright starts
All-rounders have always played a vital role in building successful teams. Batsmen who can bowl well, or bowlers with batting skills, greatly help in balance a squad.
India have had a few great all-rounders in the past, although they have struggled to find one in recent times. Before the 2000s, the likes of Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri, Vinoo Makand etc had all left their mark in world cricket with their versatile brilliance.
In the 2000s, there have been a lot of promising all-rounders who started well but couldn't last for a long time due to a number of different reasons. Here, we look at five of those Indian all-rounders who impressed in the beginning but disappeared soon.
#5 Irfan Pathan
The only Indian to take a hat-trick in the first over of a Test match, the ICC Emerging Player of the Year in 2004, the player of the 2007 World T20 final - Irfan Pathan was once India's premier all-rounder.
The junior Pathan made his debut in the 2003-04 Border Gavaskar Trophy and impressed one and all with his pace and swing. Later, he displayed his batting skills as well, and in 2005 he was promoted up the order. He even delivered on a few occasions with his hard-hitting abilities.
However, the Baroda-born cricketer couldn't maintain his form and lost his place in the team. He made a couple of comebacks but with injuries not leaving him alone, the all-rounder couldn't cement his place in the team again.
In his long yet on and off-career, Pathan has over 1100 runs and 100 Test wickets while in ODIs he registered 1544 ODI runs and 173 scalps.
Right now Pathan is acting as the mentor-cum-coach for Jammu and Kashmir, having left his native state Baroda last year.