The Indian Premier League (IPL) has established itself as a crucial platform for emerging cricketers to display their skills and gain recognition for their talent, with the potential to progress to the national team As a result, the debut or initial impression becomes critical.
Memorable IPL debuts may frequently put a player’s argument to rest if he makes the most of them. In other cases, the first competition does not proceed as anticipated. However, in rare situations, athletes are not given the opportunity to bat or bowl on their debut for a variety of reasons.
For example, Joe Root, who waited years for his IPL debut, was only able to make an impact as a fielder in the Rajasthan Royals (RR) last-ball defeat to the SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH).
The England international did not bat in the high-scoring match, and his off-spin bowling abilities were also not required in the second innings.
On a brighter note, this is not the first time Root has failed to bat or bowl in his debut. He did not bat in his previous ODI, T20I, or Hundred debuts.
There are a few players, like Root, who did not bat or bowl in their IPL debut. Here are three examples.
1) Dinesh Karthik
The skilled keeper-batter is one of a few groups of players who have participated in every season of the IPL to date. The first match of the Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) was the first of his 240 IPL appearances.
The Virender Sehwag and co. defeated the eventual winners Rajasthan Royals (RR) by nine wickets, meaning Dinesh Karthik did not have an opportunity to bat on his IPL debut.
Surprisingly, he did not have an opportunity to bat in his second match, which Delhi won by nine wickets over the now-defunct Deccan Chargers.
Karthik was ultimately given a chance to bat in the team’s third encounter of the season. In Mohali, he scored 24 runs off 14 balls against the Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings).
2) KL Rahul
KL Rahul made his debut For RCB against KKR in 2013. With Arun Karthik wearing the gloves for RCB in the match, KL Rahul was expected to bat in the middle order.
However, RCB did not require his bat’s help during the game. They managed to knock down a score of 155 in 17.3 overs while losing only two wickets.
This game is renowned for the incident between then-KKR captain Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli.
3) Ravichandran Ashwin
The great Indian spinner is one such player who missed to impress in his first IPL debut.
Ravichandran Ashwin made his IPL debut for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) against Mumbai Indians (MI) in South Africa in the very first match of the 2009
Ashwin did not bat or bowl in the match, which MI won by 19 runs. MS Dhoni employed only five bowlers to get through the 20 overs after electing to field, with Ashwin not one of them.
CSK lost seven wickets during the run chase, but Ashwin was allocated a lower position in the batting order, ensuring his time never arrived. He now become one of the most significant players not just in the history of the team, but also in the entire league.
