5 one-season wonders in IPL: Where are they now?

The Indian Premier League (IPL) provides the youngsters with a wonderful stage to put their talent and skill on the fore. While this foray into the limelight extracts the best out of many, the pressure of expectations that keeps building up constantly throws them out of the contention just as quickly. Over the years, we’ve witnessed several players performing exceedingly well only in one season.

However, as things progressed, they seemed to have lost their charm. These cricketers have ended up being a one-season sensation. While some of them played a few more seasons, the others perished right after that very year.

Here are the one-season wonders in IPL:

5. Saurabh Tiwary

The 28-year-old Saurabh Tiwary made early inroads into IPL cricket and international cricket. The Jharkhand batsman was regarded to be the left-handed version of MS Dhoni. He has the ability to hit the ball hard and is quite unorthodox with his technique. This batsman, who was picked in the Ranji side at quite a young age made a name for himself in 2010 when he represented the Mumbai Indians.

He played a vital role in helping his side get to the final with 419 runs in 16 games and was also named the emerging player of the tournament. He then went on to get picked for the Indian team and played three ODIs. But, owing to the failures, he was dropped in the same year subsequently.

After the 2010 season, Tiwary played another six seasons of IPL. He switched various teams. But he was never able to replicate the same kind of success. He scored only 818 runs in 58 games post-2010. Hence, Tiwary ended up being that one-season wonder in the IPL. The left-hander continues to feature in the Jharkhand domestic side regularly. However, his performances haven’t been as encouraging.

4. Parvinder Awana

The tall pacer hailing from Delhi represented the Kings XI Punjab in IPL 5. His ability to move the ball both ways after pitching it has got many batsmen dancing around the crease back then. In that season, Awana picked up 17 wickets in 12 games which were greater than the tally of Piyush Chawla, who was often KXIP’s leading wicket-taker.

His special effort in 2012 also earned him a spot in the Indian T20I side. Awana represented the team in two games but failed to replicate the same kind of heroics. He went wicketless in both the games and conceded runs at an economy rate which was close to 12. The 32-year-old played two more seasons in the IPL before he decided to hang his boots in July 2018. He is currently the bowling coach of Delhi in the ongoing domestic season.

3. Swapnil Asnodkar

This Goa batsman shot to prominence in IPL 2008 when he also managed to impress his Aussie skipper Shane Warne. He played a critical role in helping his team win the title in the inaugural edition of the tournament with his fearless and attacking batting. Swapnil scored 311 runs in 9 games and was regarded to be the next big thing in Indian cricket.

With tons of domestic experience, he had the stage set for him. However, in the next 11 IPL games that he played, he only managed to accumulate 112 runs and was never to be in the reckoning for the T20 league again. He plied his trade for Goa in domestic cricket and last played a List-A match against Gujarat in February 2018.

2. RP Singh

With 90 IPL wickets, RP Singh is definitely one the heavyweights of the competition. However, once touted to be the successor of Zaheer Khan, RP has found a majority of his success in just one season. He was instrumental in helping the Deccan Chargers win the title in 2009 when he was on fire bowling on the South African pitches. He picked up 23 wickets in that season and was also the purple cap holder.

However, since then, he has moved to various franchises. The left-arm seamer only managed to find very little success and wasn’t a charmer as he was before.  He never managed to pick more than 15 wickets in any of the seasons since then despite getting quite a few opportunities. The left-arm pacer retired from all forms of cricket in September 2018 and works as a commentator nowadays.

1. Paul Valthaty

Bombay-born Paul Valthaty, after years of bewilderedness, had a dream season when he played for the Kings XI Punjab in 2011. His 120* against the Chennai Super Kings at Mohali is one of the best IPL knocks one will ever come across. He scored 463 runs in 14 games in that season at a strike rate of 137.

Furthermore, he also picked up 7 wickets with his medium-pace bowling. However, in 2012, he only managed to score 30 runs in 6 games which eventually led to his downfall. Valthaty last played a one-day game for Air India back in 2014 and wasn’t in the reckoning since then. The 34-year-old is playing some local cricket leagues to meet his ends at the moment.