Indian cricket fans started following U-19 cricket seriously once we won the World Cup in 2000. The Mohammad Kaif-led Indian team inspired a bunch of youngsters to take age-level cricket seriously. Virat Kohli and his team made the tournament even more popular when they won the tournament in 2008. The tournament received a major boost. Indian cricket especially started taking U-19 pretty seriously. Every 2 years there comes a U-19 . But there have been few who have fallen by the waysideto International Debut.
StumpsandBails looks at 5 promising Indian U-19 players who failed to bag an India cap:
#5 Manvinder Bisla
Manvinder Bisla became a household name thanks to his brilliant innings in the IPL finals in 2012. His 48 ball 89 for KKR against CSK is still regarded as one of the best knocks played in the IPL knockouts. Bisla is the oldest U-19 member of this lot. He represented India at the U-19 level in 2002. Bisla was the leading run-scorer in that tournament. But unfortunately, he couldn’t bag the India cap.
#4 Gaurav Dhiman
Gaurav Dhiman created ripples in the U-19 World Cup in 2006 with his all-round show. He was an aggressive right-handed batsman and bowled military medium pace. Dhiman represented MI in 2008 and RCB in 2009. But didn’t get to play a single game for either of the franchise. He was another promising U-19 star who faded into oblivion.
#3 Tanmay Srivastava
Tanmay Srivastava was part of the U-19 Indian team that won the World Cup in 2008. The batch of 2008 was a famous lot. It comprised players like Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Siddharth Kaul, and Manish Pandey. But it was Tanmay Srivastava who was the top scorer in the tournament smashing 262 runs.
Kings XI Punjab acquired him in IPL 2008 and IPL 2009. However, he got to play just 7 matches and ended up scoring just 8 runs. Srivastava was a promising player at the U-19 level but he could not break into the International Debut. He eventually announced his retirement in 2020.
#2 Vijaykumar Yo Mahesh
Vijaykumar Yo Mahesh rose into prominence during the Under-19 World Cup 2006. He scalped 11 wickets and generated a lot of buzz owing to his height and arm speed. Delhi Daredevils picked Mahesh in IPL in the inaugural season of IPL in 2008. Mahesh put up a fine show scalping 16 wickets in 11 games. He outbowled the likes of Glenn McGrath in the squad. But unfortunately, Mahesh couldn’t sustain excellence and failed to grab the coveted International Debut. He announced his retirement in 2020.
#1 Unmukt Chand
Unmukt Chand’s inability to convert his early promise to an Indian cap was arguably the most disappointing. He led India to a fine World Cup (U-19) win in 2012. Chand even scored a stellar century in the finals (111*) against Australia. But sadly his career couldn’t take off from that early glory. Chand was easy on the eye batsmen. The most striking image of Chand’s falling from the radar was a Brett Lee outswinger in the season opener of IPL 2012. Lee destroyed Chand’s stumps with the very first ball of IPL 2012. This cast a spell of doubt in Chand’s mind and the fans alike. He was not the same player ever since then.
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