Players who almost made it into India XI

[Brainfade]

S. Badrinath's struggles to make it into national reckoning got me thinking of the number of FC cricketers who appeared to be knocking on the door for several years, but never really made it into the playing XI of the Indian team (either Test or ODI). My memory is fried, but I can remember a few. Do you all have names you would want to add to this list? My list will be Southie-biased, what with me being from Bengalooru. Back in the day: Rajinder Goel, Padmakar Shivalkar, Sudhakar Rao, V. Sivaramakrishnan, B. Vijayakrishna, A.V. Jayprakash (who turned out to be an international umpire, I believe) More recently: K. P. Bhaskar (aka Bhaskar Pillai), S. Sharath, S. Badrinath, Ambati Rayudu, Amol Muzumdar Let's see where this thread goes.

[Ram]

Rakesh Patel is another that comes to mind. And there was this really old FC cricket spinner who was doing well for soooo many years but never got a look in.. Quite cant remember his name.Anybody know about the player i am talking about ? He played wel into his 30's

[Gambit]

And there was this really old FC cricket spinner who was doing well for soooo many years but never got a look in.. Quite cant remember his name.Anybody know about the player i am talking about ? He played wel into his 30's

Utpal Chatterjee?

[Brainfade]

Rakesh Patel is another that comes to mind. And there was this really old FC cricket spinner who was doing well for soooo many years but never got a look in.. Quite cant remember his name.Anybody know about the player i am talking about ? He played wel into his 30's

Am pretty sure it was Rajinder Goel (left arm spinner). There was another Sardar medium pacer of whom I have a visual, but his name is not coming back.

[Predator_05]

It's difficult to think of promising cricketers who didn't play in both forms of the game. Vinayak Mane, Pankaj Dharmani, Gagandeep Singh, Ashish Zaidi, Mithun Manhas are a few which come to my mind. Well, Dharmani only played 1 ODI, so i am stretching a bit. All these guys deserved at least 1 cap. The best of the lot was definitely Muzumdar though, and i can't understand why he never got a single gig in either form of the game. What makes his omission even more surprising is the fact that he was a Mumbai player. I suppose it was impossible to break into a middle order which read Dravid, Tendulkar, Ganguly and Laxman.

[Ram]

Am pretty sure it was Rajinder Goel (left arm spinner). There was another Sardar medium pacer of whom I have a visual' date=' but his name is not coming back.[/quote'] Its not Goel. Not Utpal Chatterjee too. Damn i can even remember how he looked like, but cant place his name. Infact , when he was nearly 40 , he was among the top wicket takers in the domestic league. There was even rumours that he might be selected, but that didnt happen.

[kabira]

Kanwaljeet Singh?

[Ram]

Kanwaljeet Singh?

Gotcha Kabira ! Kanwaljeet Singh Indeed ! :D

[Brainfade]

Padmakar Shivalkar? Amazing FC average. BTW, Utpal Chaterjee did play 3 ODIs FWIW. Shivalkar: http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/india/content/player/34772.html

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Gotcha Kabira ! Kanwaljeet Singh Indeed ! :D

Aha! Of Andhra. He ended up with 350+ wkts. avging 28 (just checked CI). PS avgd. 18 and RG avgd 19. Amazing!

[Ram]

Here is an interview of his. http://www.khojhyderabad.com/city/interview/kanwaljit.asp

[Brainfade]

Aha! The Sardar bowler I mentioned earlier: Rajinder Singh Ghai! But, when I checked, he had played 6 ODIs; so he does not meet my criteria

[Brainfade]

Manoj Tiwary should have been there as well. The other day while playing for U-19 in a first-class match he made a 23 ball 40+. So' date=' he can hit as well.[/quote'] But, Manoj Tiwary is not out of contention. If in 5-6 years, he hasn't made the list, you can include him, but with the kind of turnover we will see soon (SRT, SCG, VVSL, RSD), his chances seem bright.

[PaiN_KiLLeR]

Avishkar Kulkarni was selected for the tour of australia in `03 after a brilliant season ... but he suffered a major injury just days before the team was scheduled to leave.... thus making way for Balaji kulkarni's career has gone downhill ever since and he barely gets a game for Mumbai these days.:sad_smile:

[Brainfade]

Avishkar Kulkarni was selected for the tour of australia in `03 after a brilliant season ... but he suffered a major injury just days before the team was scheduled to leave.... thus making way for Balaji kulkarni's career has gone downhill ever since and he barely gets a game for Mumbai these days.:sad_smile:

You mean Avishkar Salvi. He did play 4 ODIs. http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/ci/content/player/34264.html

[Gambit]

Hopefully Gagandeep Singh will not be added to this thread in the years to come.

[Ram]

Salvi was crap , in every sense. Its a disgrace he even played for India.

[The Outsider]

Dravid has been pushing for Badrinath's selection for almost a year according to some journo sources in ANY form of cricket.

[Sooda]

K. Ananthapadmanaban and Bharati Vij Two more spinners who took wickets by the hatful in domestics Vij ended with 319 wkts at 23 from 72 matches. Not half bad. Gagandeep can consider himself a bit unlucky to not have played at least one test/ODI

[Sooda]

SS Paul too V V Kumar supposedly a great leggie from back in the day, didn't get a look in with the great Spin era of the 60s/70s. Has a spin coaching clinic now I believe. would have played a lot of test cricket for any other team. Edit: I was wrong Kumar played 2 tests apparently...still no where near enough from what I understand