5 Most unlucky Indian cricketers since 2000
Team India is blessed with so many great cricketers. There are superstars in every decade. The likes of Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar ruled the 1980s Indian cricket. Sachin, along with Dravid and Ganguly ruled the 1990s. Dhoni, Kohli and Rohit are ruling the present generation.
So when the baton is dropped from yesterday's cricketers, there will be someone from present generation who picks it up. The Sachin, Dravid and Ganguly era is considered the Golden era of Indian cricket.
After the former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly took over the Indian team after the match-fixing scandal in early 2000, he brought together a bunch of cricketers under him who delivered consistent performances, which helped the Indian team achieve so many successes.
The legacy continued when MS Dhoni took over the Indian captaincy from Dada. There have been so many cricketers blessed to play under various Indian captains since 2000. However, there are quite a few Indian cricketers who debuted for India after 2000 who might have been unlucky for not getting enough opportunities or the right opportunity, which ultimately resulted in the downfall of their career.
Let's have a look at some of these talented, yet unlucky, cricketers.
#5 Amit Mishra
Amit Mishra is one of the most underrated Indian spinners. He has taken over 500 wickets in first class cricket, and 242 wickets in List A, but he has played only limited number of matches for India. He made the ODI debut for India in 2003, but was left out after a couple of games.
It was a period when India's top two spinners, Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble, were at the peak of their powers. So it was really difficult for the Haryana-born spinner to break into the team.
After five years of his international debut, he finally got the opportunity against Australia in 2008. This was due to the leading Indian spinner Anil Kumble getting injured. He had a good start to his Test career, as he took a five-wicket haul in his debut Test.
With Kumble retiring in the same year, it was a nice opportunity for Mishra to establish himself. But due to lack of variations he was inconsistent, and young spinners like Jadeja and Ashwin took his place in the Indian spinners' slot. Since then, Mishra was in and out of the team, as his career slowly faded away. If he had gotten the opportunity three to five years before he actually did, he might have established himself well in the international arena.