While the pre-modern day cricket was all about the 5 day Test and 60 overs, later 50 overs, One Day cricket, the modern day cricket now also includes the T20 International format as well as various other T20 cricket leagues around the world.
Nowadays, with so much workload thanks to the T20 cricket leagues that are played worldwide, also the introduction of T10 format and the 100 balls league, various teams nowadays prefer to play 2 different set of groups where one group would play the white-ball format while one play the 5 day Test format.
But for the Indian team, it is quite different. If you do well in one format, you get opportunity in other formats as well despite being not good in that particular format. While there has been instances when a player failed one format and failed but didn’t get opportunity in other formats but maybe they could have done better there.
Today in this article, we take a look at 3 Indian players who failed in limited overs format but could have become star in Test cricket.
Robin Uthappa
Karnataka batsman Robin Uthappa is a class batsman and he has shown his quality in all the format and matches he has played. He has also once won the Orange Cap in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and led Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to the IPL title in 2014.
Uthappa didn’t get a long run in the Indian team and only played about 60 matches, that too only in the limited overs format only. However, his numbers in the Indian domestic cricket is fantastic as he has scored 9446 runs in 142 first-class matches. Although he didn’t had a long career in the limited overs format, he could have been a strong player in the red ball cricket.
Ashok Dinda
Ashok Dinda is one of the most successful bowler in the Indian domestic cricket. With well over 400 wickets only in the first-class cricket, Dinda has certainly proven his credentials. However, he was not so successful in the limited limited-overs matches that he played for India. He could only take 29 wickets in 21 matches in ODIs and T20Is.
However, he never got an opportunity to play the longest format of the game for the Indian team. But maybe had he played, today he could have been recognised as one of the best in red ball cricket.
Manish Pandey
Manish Pandey is a brilliant middle-order batsman that every team would love to have. But while the Indian team had him in their disposal, they couldn’t get the best out of him. Pandey made it to the Indian team thanks to his brilliant outing for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the IPL, but couldn’t establish himself in the team.
However, he could have been a great addition to the Indian team’s middle-order in the Test cricket. Pandey has played 104 first-class matches in his career and has scored 7306 runs as of writing this with an average of more than 50. This shows his brilliant potential he had in this format, but, now it seems there is no way back for him.
