Except the 2007 World Cup debacle, India have always been a potent for at the World Cups in the 2000s. India reached the final in 2003, lifted the trophy in 2011 and had an unbeaten run in the 2015 World Cup till the semi-final. In 2019 too, team India are labelled as hot favorites.

The credit goes to the large pool of talented cricketers that India possess. For any domestic cricketer, the odds of breaking into the Indian squad and featuring in a World Cup game are very low. This is why many of the well-established Indian cricketers who have played for India for several years have never had the taste of World Cup.

In this article, we will take a look at 7 Indian cricketers who have never played a World Cup game.

#7 Praveen Kumar

Praveen Kumar was a talented pacer who had the ability to swing the ball either ways at will on any given surface. He wasn’t the quickest around but had swing as his potent weapon. He played 68 ODIs for India, picking 77 wickets at an economy rate of 5.13

Praveen Kumar was originally picked in the 2011 World Cup squad but he was ruled out due to injury. Sadly, his international career did not last for too long after that and he made his last appearance for India in ODI cricket in March 2012.

Kumar announced his retirement from all formats of the game in 2018 at the age of 32.

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#6 Ishant Sharma

Ishant Sharma has been a veteran for India in test cricket, but in ODI cricket his performances are not quite spectacular. In 80 ODIs, he has picked 115 wickets. The problem with Ishant Sharma has been his inability to contain batsmen in the death overs.

Ishant did not feature in the 2011 World Cup and was ruled out from the 2015 edition due to injury. Ishant has lost his place in the ODI team long back and there seems to be very little hope of a comeback.

#5 Vinay Kumar

We have seen a lot of Vinay Kumar in the IPL over the years. However, he has not been able to replicate the same success at international level. He’s never been intimidatingly quick, usually bowling at a moderate pace of 130-135 kph.

Vinay’s short ODI career comprised of 31 ODIs picking 38 wickets. In a game against Australia in November 2013, he got hit for 100 runs in 9 overs and was never seen again for India after that. Vinay was never considered for any World Cup squads either.

#4 Ambati Rayudu

Ambati Rayudu’s international career started very late despite him being talented and debatably deserving. Rayudu made his ODI debut for India in July 2013 against Zimbabwe. Just like many others, he was in and out of the team and did not establish himself for a long period of time.

Rayudu was picked in India’s 2015 World Cup squad and did not get a single game. Then in 2018, when he had established himself as a No.4 batsman, he was snubbed at the last moment and the selectors opted for Vijay Shankar. As a result, he has never featured in a World Cup game for India.

He has played 55 ODIs scoring 1694 runs at an average of 47.

#3 Amit Mishra

Arguably the unluckiest Indian cricketer of the 2010s, Amit Mishra’s extraordinary abilities remained under the shadow of his fellow spinners. Throughout his career, Mishra was in and out of the Indian team and hardly got a streak of games on the trot.

In the 2011 World Cup, Ravichandran Ashwin was preferred to Mishra to team up with Harbhajan Singh, despite Mishra being the senior of the two. By 2015, Ashwin had already established himself well enough to feature in the first choice XI and hence there was no room for Mishra.

Later on, the duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal emerged putting an end to Mishra’s international career. Mishra played 36 ODIs picking 64 wickets and picked 2 five-fers in his career.

#2 Irfan Pathan

India’s leading left-arm speedster of the mid-2000s surprisingly never wore the World Cup colors for his country. Irfan had a relatively successful career in a short period of time picking 173 wickets in 120 games.

Irfan Pathan’s career was separated into two halves, the first one where he made his mark on the international scene and the second one where everything went downhill for him. Irfan was not a regular after 2009. He made a brief comebacks in 2011 and 2012 but his international career was done and dusted.

1) VVS Laxman

India’s legendary test batsman VVS Laxman had a moderately successful ODI career. He played 86 ODIs scoring 2338 runs at a lukewarm average of 30.8. Laxman was a part of India’s 2003 World Cup squad as a spare batsman and had to sit out throughout the tournament.

He did not feature in the 1999 and 2007 World Cup and hence his dream of playing a World Cup game wearing the Indian colors was never fulfilled. Laxman remains one of the only two cricketers in the post-World Cup era to play 100 tests but not a single World Cup game alongside Australia’s Justin Langer.

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