5 cricketers who didn’t get enough chances because of Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli is the face of Indian cricket at the moment. He has been a fabulous performer for the ‘Men in Blue’ across all the three formats. In fact, he averages in excess of 50 in each of the formats and is the only man on the planet to do so. He churns out runs for fun and is tipped to break most of the batting records. Moreover, he is leading India across formats and is breaking records in almost every game.

However, due to Kohli’s brilliance and consistency, there have been a few players who haven’t got big opportunities in the Indian team. Not only with Kohli being in the team but also players who haven’t had a lot of chances under Kohli, the captain.

Hence, here we look at five players who didn’t get enough opportunities because of Virat Kohli.

1. S Badrinath

We often talk about India’s tour to Sri Lanka in 2008 and how Virat Kohli made his international debut in that series. There was another batsman who made his debut in the same series but isn’t talked about a lot. Subramaniam Badrinath played his maiden ODI in the second game of the series. He scored a fighting 27 to take India home in a low-scoring game.

Less than two years later, he made his Test debut with a couple of big stars out injured. In what was a memorable two-match Test series against South Africa, Badrinath played both games and on debut, he was one of the only two batters that got a score of substance. He scored 56 against a rampant South African attack. However, the Tamil Nadu player couldn’t build on these performances and didn’t do enough to remain in the team.

Despite scoring tons of runs in domestic cricket and averaging 54.49 in first-class cricket, Badrinath played just 10 international innings. He even did well in the IPL as he played for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) but he couldn’t break into the Indian side. His prime collided with Virat Kohli’s rise as a batsman. Hence, Badrinath didn’t get opportunities at the highest level.

2. Manoj Tiwary

Manoj Tiwary is one player in the Indian domestic circuit who isn’t afraid to talk his heart out. He’s often been critical about the Indian selectors and even his IPL snubs in the recent past. Tiwary has played a total of 15 internationals for India – 12 ODIs and three T20Is. But these spanned across seven years.

After a fantastic Ranji season in 2006-07, Tiwary made it to the Indian side which toured Bangladesh and he was set for debut. However, he injured his shoulder and was ruled out. He finally made his debut in an ODI in Australia in February 2008. He played just one game before he came back in 2011.

In the next few years, the Bengal player was consistently in and out of the team. Kohli’s rise and prime as a batsman somewhat hampered Tiwary’s run. He was decent in the IPL as well. Yet, he couldn’t really force his way into the Indian side. He has a good domestic record as he averages 51.78 in first-class cricket and 42.37 in List ‘A’ cricket.

3. Karun Nair

There may be an argument that Karun Nair is just 28 and how he did not get chances because of Virat Kohli. But it’s Kohli, the batsman and Kohli, the captain, because of both that the Karnataka lad hasn’t got his due yet. On the back of a couple of excellent Ranji seasons, Nair made his ODI debut in June 2016 and Test debut later in the same year.

In fact, in only his third Test match, he smashed a triple ton, becoming just the second Indian to score a 300 in a Test match. But Nair had come in as a replacement for Ajinkya Rahane and was back on the bench when the Indian Test vice-captain returned. Nair did play when India played only four bowlers against Australia in early 2017. However, he didn’t have the best of series and was omitted from the team soon after.

Nair averages 49.50 in first-class cricket and after only a couple of failures, he was dropped not only from the XI but also the squad. The way he was managed in his first burst of international cricket wasn’t great and Kohli’s terrific run as a batsman also saw him sit out and not get his chances.

4. Amit Mishra

It’s been nearly two decades since Amit Mishra has been around. He made his first-class debut in the 2000/01 season. But he first played for India in 2003 but he is remembered for his Test debut in 2008 where he was an instant hit as he picked up a fifer in his maiden outing. However, he couldn’t really maintain that form and was constantly in and out of the side.

In white-ball cricket, he was never the first-choice spinner. After Harbhajan Singh, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja came to the fore. Mishra was often picked as the third spinner or when either of Ashwin or Jadeja were rested. The Haryana leg-spinner did well almost every time he got a chance, especially in the shorter formats. But he’s never got a fair run.

He’s barely played a handful of games under Virat Kohli’s captaincy. The last time he played an ODI, Mishra took 5/18 against New Zealand in October 2016. His last T20I appearance was against England in early 2017 and he returned with figures of 1/23 from his four overs. Thus, it’s been hard on him to completely exclude him.

5. Murali Vijay

There was a time when Murali Vijay shot into the limelight due to his performances for the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) but it was a little-known fact that he had scored a lot of runs in first-class cricket as well. In the initial phase of his career, he was a replacement opener for either Virender Sehwag or Gautam Gambhir.

However, in 2013, Vijay ascended to the top and became India’s first-choice Test opener. He was a reliable option at the top and he consistently scored runs and blunted out the new ball. In India’s overseas cycle between December 2013 and mid-2015, Vijay was among the top run-scorers. He got runs at home as well.

But when the same overseas cycle came about in 2018, Vijay was discarded after just a few failures. India had a fragile batting order and there was hardly anyone apart from Virat Kohli who stood up to the overseas challenge. But Vijay faced the axe after a few bad performances.