Which promising player whose career got cut short was the biggest loss?

[BacktoCricaddict]

There was a Vinod Kambli reference a few days ago and it got me thinking of all the players who had stellar starts to their international careers only to have it cut short for some reason (injury, loss of form, "found out", selection whim, all of the above ...). So we are not talking about domestic giants who never got a chance (Goel, Shivalkar) or guys who got a chance but immediately didn't look the part (so many examples). Rather guys who sparkled but never made it big.

 

My list:

 

Vinod Kambli

Karun Nair

 

Narendra Hirwani

L Siva

R P Singh

Sreesanth

Munaf Patel (?)

 

I think one of the leggies is the biggest loss. If either of them had clicked they could've bridged the gap between the big 4 spin kings and Anil Kumble.

 

Both had exceedingly good starts to their careers, but quickly flamed out. Especially Hirwani. He turned the ball big (admittedly on minefields), didn't seem to have any discipline issues etc., but inexplicably disappeared as quickly as he appeared. Maybe with better coaching and mentorship, he would have developed into an excellent spinner with more tricks than a big-spinning leg break on deadly pitches.

 

Discuss.

 

 

 

 

 

[R!TTER]

Irfan always & forever

[putrevus]

Kambli, he had lot more talent than he got to show.He was not one inning wonder like Nair or one test wonder like Hirwani.

 

Others did not deserve anymore tests. 

[deepdynamo]

Sadgopan Ramesh.

 

His legside play was majestic.

 

 

[tweaker]

Robin Singh .As a pace bowling allrounder ,left handed batsman and very good fielder he was selected very late in Indian team.

 

[goose]

Ishant Sharma

[Vijy]

Kambli for sure.

 

I can name some old timers too, but I don't think it will be as interesting for many: deepak shodhan, madhav apte, etc

[tweaker]

Sairaj  Bahutule was a leg spinner who got very less opportunity 

[VT87]

Irfan pathan and Virat Kohli his last 3 years really dent his legacy 

[maggot_brain]

Not an Indian.  Mfuneko Ngam.  One of South Africa's most promising ever young bowlers whose career ended when he kept getting stress fractures due to childhood malnutrition.

[tweaker]

Neil Johnson, Zimbabwe's allrounder, I still remember his perfomance against South Africa in world cup

[helperononline]

Unmukt Chand 

Murali karthik 

Robin uttappa

Manoj Tiwary

 

Edited February 20, 2024 by helperononline

[Cricket_Hacker]

Shane Bond

Stuart McGill

Edited February 20, 2024 by Cricket_Hacker

[Nikhil_cric]

Of those mentioned in the OP, I would probably consider RP and Munaf only. 

 

They were both clearly overaged and, therefore,  never reached their potential .

 

But RP in LOIs and Munaf in Tests would have been really good to watch had they been identified and groomed at an early (real)age. 

 

 

 

 

[Vickydev]

Shahid Afridi

[nevada]

3 hours ago, tweaker said:

Robin Singh .As a pace bowling allrounder ,left handed batsman and very good fielder he was selected very late in Indian team.

 

He made the most of his chances despite restarting his career at 33! Was very athletic in his fielding even at that age. 

[nevada]

Nobody has mentioned Amre yet? 

[R!TTER]

10 minutes ago, Vickydev said:

Shahid Afridi

What do you mean, his career as a  certified clown?

[vvvslaxman]

Hard to predict. But there were some players that were unfairly dropped without giving a proper run.Karun Nair definitely must be gutted. ON the other hand some guys were given chances endlessly. Rohit sharma as a test player kept coming back because he did well in ODI. THat is the advantage of being a multiformat player. Uthappa was exclusively a ODI player. So he had to click there.  Jadeja/Rohit sharma had long runs because of this. 

[srgadjon]

Quintessential name in this list should be Karun Nair. Imagine scoring a triple century in a test match and getting dropped and then never playing for India again.