IPL History: 5 players who had just one good season
The introduction of the Indian Premier League( IPL) in 2008 changed the face of cricket, Indian cricket to be specific. The power of world cricket shifted to India with the BCCI becoming the force they are now. The concept of a franchise-style T20 league which brings together the best players from the world to co-exist with young Indian talent revitalized and re-energized the sport.
Almost a decade ago when BCCI came up with an idea of revolutionizing Indian cricket by introducing franchise system based IPL, it gave a chance to throw uncapped, fringe-players into the mainstream cricketing arena.
IPL gave the rookies a platform to prove their worth and get into the selector’s mind to hop into the Indian jersey.
While many Indian players benefited from their experience in the IPL and used that as a platform to get into the national side and make a mark, there has also been a list of players who have made a brilliant impression for one season of the IPL and then faded away into oblivion.
Here's a look of a list of some players who made it big in the IPL only to fade away completely from public memory:
#5 Paul Valthaty- KXIP (2011)
The opener was a revelation for Kings XI Punjab in 2011 where he shot to fame after he scored a mind-boggling ton to chase down a target of 189 posted by the reigning champions, Chennai Super Kings. The right-handed batsmen’s unbeaten knock of 120 in 63 balls was the first century of the season.
Also see – India vs Australia schedule
He managed to score 463 runs at an average of 35.61 with a strike rate of 136.98 in the season. His run tally was the sixth-highest that year, behind players such as Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli, and Sachin Tendulkar as he registered one hundred and two fifty-plus scores. However, Valthaty’s career went into a downhill after he was not able to live up to the hype in the successive seasons. He managed to feature in only six more games in his IPL career scoring a total of 30 runs.
His was a case of expectations getting the better of him. A very attractive stroke player fell prey to the rising demands to perform at a consistent level in front of packed stadiums that every IPL game witnesses.