5 All-rounders tried before Hardik Pandya 

All-rounders are a rarity in Indian cricket. The 1983 World Cup winning squad had quite a few of them. Players like Kapil dev, Mohinder Amaranth, Madan Lal, Roger Binny provided the team with abundance of options in both the departments.

But in the past two decades the selectors have been desperately looking to fill in that void and have been on the lookout especially for a fast bowling all-rounder. Before Hardik Pandya became Kung fu Pandya, a huge star in Indian cricket, the selectors had given a chance to some players.

For a brief period of time, Irfan Pathan had started developing into a world class all-rounder. But, as he started to perform with the bat, his bowling lost its bite. Moreover, the worthless experimentation done with his potential did him more harm than good. The Indian cricket lost a world class all-rounder in making.

Since then, the Indian team has tried many all-rounders with little success. Here are five of them who failed to grab their chances

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#1. Stuart Binny

He boasts the best figures in ODI cricket for India (6-4 vs Bangladesh), but failed to make a lasting impact. He came into prominence on the back of strong performances for Rajasthan Royals and a decent domestic record.

He has a satisfactory batting average of 28, a bowling average of 21 with 20 wickets in 14 matches for India. He couldn't hone his skill in one department which the team could rely upon. Whether it was batting or bowling, in both areas he remained a bits and pieces cricketer. Owing to his inconsistency, he never managed to seal a permanent spot in the Indian team.

#2. Irfan Pathan

Irfan Pathan

Long back, it seemed the younger of Pathan brothers was destined for greatness. But injuries, drastic loss of form, pace and most importantly the prodigious swing, cut short his international career.

Early into his career, he showcased banana swing in the memorable hat-trick against Pakistan. He was an excellent batsman too; his 46 against the Aussies on the bouncy surface of WACA helped India win the third Test of 2007-08 series. With the passage of time, he became more of a batsman than a bowler and eventually faded away while struggling to perform in either department. He was not an all-rounder in the mould of Shane Watson, but rather someone like Tim Brennan or David Willey of England, who himself is no mug with the bat as recently witnessed in the second ODI where he smashed a half century lower down the order.

It is really sad to see the way Pathan disappeared from the International scene. He had a decent start to his career and was touted to be India's next top all-rounder. He even won the Emerging Player of the Year award in 2004 by ICC. He made comebacks without much success.

#3. Rishi Dhawan

Rishi Dhawan

This Himachal Pradesh lad also made an entry into the Indian team on the back of both IPL performances for Kings XI Punjab and a good domestic record. He was the type of bowling all-rounder India was looking for before Hardik came into the scene.

With a decent first class batting average of 40.73 and 248 wickets from 59 matches at a healthy average of 26, he made the right noises in the domestic circuit, but could not justify his selection in the limited chances he got to showcase his talent.

Now he doesn't feature even in the IPL.

#4. Parvez Rasool

The Kashmir-born off spinner was looked as a bowling all-rounder option in the mould of Ravindra Jadeja. But he didn't set the stage alight as he had done in domestic circuit continuously for two seasons from 2012- 2014 and then again in 2016-2017 season, scoring around 600 runs in each season at an average of around 50 and taking around 30 wickets a season at a pretty decent average.

His only two chances came against Bangladesh in 2014 and in a T20 against England in 2017. It is a quite a short international career but he didn't make an impact in IPL either.

#5. Axar Patel

Axar Patel

The slow left orthodox bowling all-rounder from Gujarat also got an entry into the Indian dressing room through the IPL door. He performed quite well for Kings XI Punjab showcasing mental toughness to handle pressure.

But at international level 45 wickets from 38 matches are not much home to write about. His batting technique also got exposed as he couldn't handle international level bowlers and looked like a fish out of the ocean while batting.