International cricket, as has been often described, is diametrically opposite to first-class cricket. Therefore, sometimes it happens that a player who is extremely talented domestically fails to put up a show in international cricket. It also happens that some players come up on the international stage with a bang but fizzle out after just one good performance.
The scrutiny and pressure are so intense that a few players are unable to process it. We look at 5 players who played an incredible inning but did not perform henceforth.
1.Jason Krejza
Spinners from Down Under are few and far in between however, one of the rare few emergent players from there who actually managed to make a mark at the turn of the millennium is Jason Krejza.
He first came to notice when he picked up 12 wickets on his test debut at Nagpur against India when the Aussies had come to tour in 2008. However, due to unfortunate circumstances regarding injury, selection, and bad timing, this was the only match that he played in and was never again given the provision of donning the Baggy Green. Since his stand-out performance, his performance plummeted deep and no other domestic side was willing to contract his services even for the domestic season. He will go down as the only Aussie bowler to dominate the Nagpur Dustbowl with 12 wickets even while conceding sizable runs and never again be part of the Australian test set-up.
2.Fawad Alam
In a world where Babar Azam is touted as the best Pakistani Batsman of all time, for a brief moment in history almost all Pakistani heartbeat for Fawad, and not the one from Ae Dil Hai Mushkil.
Fawad Alam was a dashing left-hand bat who was a part of the Pakistani limited overs team at the turn of the decade. Alam debuted in 2009 and while maybe unremarkable in his first innings really managed to impress the world audience with a 168 in his second innings against Sri Lanka. This made him the only Pakistani cricketer to successfully score a hundred in his debut match while playing away from home.
Subsequently, his test caps saw a bit of a drop and he became a more crucial part of the limited-overs set-up where, while he managed to pick up a decent average he was still unable to break out as significantly and be a successful challenger to be a part of the test team.
3.Joginder Sharma
The forgotten man etched in the memory of every Indian Fan, the Hero of the maiden 2007 T20 world cup was truly the weapon that MS Dhoni was able to utilize to the optimum degrees.
Joginder was entrusted the responsibility of bowling the final over with a very achievable target of 13 off the final over at the time with Misbah Ul-Haq, the set batsman at the crease.
While miscuing the first two deliveries, bowling a wide and conceding a six, Joginder Sharma marked his comeback by having Misbah Ul-Haq edge the third ball of the over to Sreesanth and was thus able to fully secure the bag in favor of India and have us win out Maiden ICC t20 World Cup title.
This remains, however, his finest moment and simultaneously his last moment donning the Indian jersey for representation in t20s.
4.Gary Gilmour
The left-arm swing bowler became an overnight success for the Aussies in the 1975 World Cup when he lit up the tournament with his magnificent bowling. He, however, could not help his team win the title. His first game in the tournament was the semi-finals against England, where he delivered put a phenomenal show by picking up six wickets for just 14 runs.
He continued his showing in the finals as well where he picked up five wickets, and his efforts restricted West Indies to 291. However, he played only one ODI later and was not called up again by Australia.
5.Narendra Hirwani
The leg-spinner started with a bang, as he took 16 wickets in his Test debut against West Indies at Madras in 1987-88. He cemented his place in the side and took 20 more wickets in his next three Tests for India. However, on foreign pitches, his midas touch was lost since the pitch did no aide his style of bowling.
His charm went missing and he never really got back his mojo post his great show on debut. At the end of his career, he stood with 66 wickets in 17 games at an average of 30.10. With Anil Kumble announcing himself to international cricket, he was pushed further in the pecking order and eventually retired.
