4 players who won Man of the Match in their last outing for India

What if you fly exceptionally well, but are never allowed to fly again? And what if you won the Man of the Match in your last match, but are never given a chance to play again?

Living the life of a sportsperson is an overwhelming thought. Many look towards them and feel how blessed they are to be there, how great a lifestyle they possess, the kind of adulation and support they receive appears admirable, and there is a whole lot of other things. But how often do we look at what’s cloaked behind the dazzling stardom?

We stand and look at their heroics in awe, but we overlook their making. We admire the fizz around them, but we ignore what it took them to reach there. The immense labour and sweat, the many failures and fret, all of this is casually ignored. There’s more to our indifference as we also ignore how cruelly competitive lives do sports-persons have.

Much has changed in the world with time, but nothing more than the competition. We are told that hard-work wins you everything every time, but perhaps there are exceptions to it. What if you swim brilliantly well, but are never allowed to swim again? What if you fly exceptionally well, but are never allowed to fly again? And what if you win the Man of the Match in your last match, but are never given a chance to play again?

Let’s take a look at those unlucky talents, who had everything in them, who did everything right, and worked hard to earn their place, but were never given a chance again.

Here are such four players:

1. Subramaniam Badrinath

A renowned and sound middle-order batsman from Chennai, Badrinath has been a domestic-cricket wonder. Having amassed over 10,000 runs in his first-class career, the 39-year-old has been a mainstay for Tamil Nadu since well over a decade.

The right-hander, known for his resilient temperament and solid technique with the bat, came into the national reckoning during 2007 after he piled loads of runs playing for India A. In spite of scoring heavily in the domestic circuit, Badri failed to make a mark and was resultantly dropped from the side only after 3 ODIs.

However, he got another chance in 2011 when India was touring West Indies and was scheduled to play a T20I at Trinidad. Grabbing the opportunity this time, Badrinath played a coming of age innings of 43 from 37 deliveries when India was reduced to 56 for 4. It was Badri’s knock which led India to post a respectable total of 159 for 6 and he was awarded as the Man of the Match as India defeated the hosts by 16 runs.

Surely much to his disappointment, he was dropped from the T20 team of India and was never considered again to represent his country at the international pedestal.