An XI Of Indian Cricketers Who Have Played Only 1 International Game

To play for Team India is a dream come true for many. However, considering the intense fight for places, a lot of aspiring cricketers do not get a chance to don the blue jersey. At the same time, there have been an unlucky few who played just one International game. In this article, we take a look at an XI of Indian cricketers who have played only 1 International game.

Although currently there are three formats of the game that are given equal prominence, many players still do not get a place to represent India. In the past, it was even harder considering Test cricket was the dominant format. We look at the profiles of some players who have played just one game for India.

Openers: Faiz Fazal (C) and Arvind Apte

Faiz Fazal is one of the unlucky cricketers of this era. Although he has always done well in domestic cricket, an India debut happened only recently in 2016. He played just one ODI game and never got another chance. Faiz also captains this squad. Brother of Madhav Apte, Aravind Apte played one game for Team India. He is an opening batsman and was part of many FC fixtures for Mumbai. Hence, he also features in this XI of Indian cricketers who have played only 1 International game.

Middle-Order: Kenia Jayantilal, Ramesh Saxena, Abhijit Kale, Pankaj Dharmani (WK)

Both Kenia Jayantilal and Ramesh Saxena played cricket in an era where the five-day format was the dominant one. Also, at that time, India used to have a settled batting order. Hence, unless there was an injury, it was hard to get a chance. These two were unfortunate to play just one game for India, although they were talented.

Abhijit Kale and Pankaj Dharmani were some of the recent players whose careers got stuck at one game for India. While Abhijit has taken cricket administration as a profession, Dharmani is not much in the picture now. Dharmani is especially known for his consistency in the domestic circuit.

All-Rounders: Pawan Negi

Pawan Negi is the only all-rounder that we have in this XI of Indian cricketers who have played only 1 International game. The Delhi all-rounder was a hot property when he made it to the India squad. He did extremely well for CSK and even got a bumper contract in IPL. The player was part of one T20I game against UAE in the Asia Cup. He just took a wicket but never made a return to the squad. At the moment, a comeback is almost impossible for the player.

Bowlers: Iqbal Siddiqui, Ajit Pai, Sreenath Aravind, and Mayank Markande

Both Iqbal Siddiqui and Ajit Pai were tall pacers who played just one game for Team India. While Iqbal played for Maharashtra in Ranji Trophy, Ajit was a Mumbai player. Both these cricketers were also useful batsmen. In fact, in the only game that he played, Iqbal Siddiqui both opened the batting and bowling for India.

Sreenath Aravind played one game for India after impressing for RCB in the IPL. India was in search of a left-arm pacer, and hence, Aravind was drafted in. However, he got just one chance to play for India. He is currently a good coach in domestic cricket. Although he is still young, Mayank Markhande has a tough job to make it to Team India. The likes of Rahul Chahar and Ravi Bishnoi are in the queue, and Mayank must have a terrific domestic season to make a comeback. Hence, we have him on this list.