IPL 2019: 5 fabulous players who failed for their hometown franchise but succeeded elsewhere
Until a few years ago, cricket was one of the very few sports that focused only on international fixtures and first-class/ List A games. It all changed with the introduction of Twenty20 cricket. Franchise cricket started getting attention and T20 leagues became popular. The Indian Premier League played a huge role in the success of franchise-based T20 cricket.
Though T20 cricket is all about diversity, fans always love to watch their local stars. Most players started with the hometown franchise but moved elsewhere because of various reasons. Playing on the home turf is always considered an advantage for a batsman or a bowler. Surprisingly, it wasn’t the case always in the Indian Premier League. Few players struggled to make it count for their state-based team but found success with other franchises.
On that note, let’s take a look at the five fabulous players who failed for their hometown franchise but succeeded elsewhere.
#5 Manish Pandey
Manish Pandey started his IPL career as a Mumbai Indians player but joined Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2009. Though he was born in Uttarakhand, Manish Pandey played all his first-class cricket in Bangalore.
He turned everyone’s attention towards him when he became the first Indian player to score a hundred in the Indian Premier League. However, he failed miserably in 2010 and managed to score only 249 runs in 13 matches. After a disappointing campaign, Manish Pandey was bought by now-defunct Pune Warriors in the 2011 auction. Though he showed a lot of promise, he wasn’t able to produce results.
The 29-year-old then joined Kolkata Knight Riders in 2014 and played a huge role in their title win. Pandey produced a Man of the Match performance in the finals with a superb 94 against Kings XI Punjab. He stayed with the franchise for four years and scored 1270 runs at an average of 30. Pandey was called into the Indian T20 side in 2015.