5 Indian cricketers who deserved a chance to play Test cricket but never did

If you are born in a country with more cricket fanatics than the entire population of competitors, it's highly unlikely you'll make it to the Test arena without some luck favoring you. We see talents emerge, gain fame, get touted as the 'next him' or 'next her', and then disappear like they never existed every year.

This piece is an attempt to remember five of the many who couldn't make it to India's red-ball teams but will forever be etched in the history of the game.

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#1 Rajinder Goel

Remembered as a simple man and a spin-bowling buff with a big heart and unwavering passion, Rajinder Goel was arguably the best cricketer in the world not to have graced the longest format. Accurate with his stock ball - slow-left-arm spin - and supremely deceptive with his famous arm ball, he could grind and grind on bad pitches and then run away with wickets on even slightly helpful ones.

His passion showed in his statement to Sportstar:

“I was lucky to have played the amount of cricket I did. For me, the greatest joy was to play a match. It did not matter what level the match was. If I did not bowl (in nets or a match) I could not sleep.”

Cricketing stats lie at times, but a record of 750 first-class wickets, via almost 40000 deliveries at an average of 18.58, with 59 fifers and 18 10-wicket hauls precisely states Goel's impact.

The Delhi and Haryana bowler won innumerable games in his 27-year-career - which extended till he was 42. It was more than enough to make it to any international team in the world. But he couldn't break the queue to wear India's whites. The national side already included another generational left-arm tweaker, Bishan Singh Bedi, alongside three other towering spinners who formed the famous quartet - off-spinners Erapalli Prasanna, S Venkataraghavan, and leg-spinner Bhagwat Chandrasekhar.

The closest he came to his international debut was in 1974 when he was included in the squad against the Clive Lloyd-led West Indies at home but didn't get a place in the playing XI. He took up coaching in the latter half of his career and was awarded the Col. CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award by the BCCI in 2016.

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#2 Padmakar Shivalkar

Bedi and the quartet were good enough to keep not one but two elite left-arm orthodox spinners on the fringes of the national team. Claiming 589 first-class wickets from 124 matches at an average of 19.69 is no mean feat and Padmakar Shivalkar achieved it with humility and an acceptance that he was born in the wrong era.

As the legend goes, the first time Shivalkar bowled with a leather ball was during a trial - on request from his friend Dattu Satelkar - under the watchful eyes of Vinoo Mankad. Still, it took him just three deliveries to impress the international player. He recalled the fascinating story to the Deccan Herald, saying:

"When I first held the cricket ball, I wondered how do I bowl with this. My first two deliveries were wayward and then my friend, who had taken me for the trials, scolded me in Marathi and asked me to bowl at stumps. With the third ball, I had knocked off the stumps. After watching me for a while, a gentleman walked up to me and asked me if I wanted a job. I was desperate for a job and said yes. That man was the great Vinoo Mankad, who was holding trials for his company's cricket team. He gave me just one advice: 'Don't try to copy me, if you do, you will be finished.'"

Like Goel, he was indefatigable with the cricket ball in his hand and was an unwanted sight for batters in the 1960s to early '80s. Unlike Goel, though, Shivalkar deceived the batters in flight and with his robust arsenal of variations. He won 18 Ranji Trophy titles for the epochal Mumbai side that won 20 trophies in 22 years. But none of it was enough to help him replace Bedi in the Indian Test side.

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#3 Amol Muzumdar

The second-highest run-scorer ever in the premier domestic red-ball competition not getting picked for the Test team can only happen in India. What Goel was to spin in the era of the famous quartet, Amol Muzumdar was to batting during the domination of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly.

Known for his inch-perfect technique, Muzumdar honed his skills under Mumbai coaching great Remkant Archrekar and struck a world-record 260 on debut against Haryana in the 1993-94 Ranji Trophy pre-quarter-final. He went on to pile 11167 runs in 171 matches, studded with 30 centuries and 60 half-centuries, at an average of 48.13.

But Tendulkar and Dravid's superior temperament made them almost impregnable as India's No. 3 and 4, which were also Muzumdar's favorite positions. Ganguly and Laxman were more vulnerable but the former's captaincy skills and the latter's penchant for playing memorable rescue knocks helped them go on.

As the 'big-four' competed against the best in the world, Muzumdar continued to heap runs for Mumbai. He was dropped from the state side in 2009 so he switched to Assam and then Andhra Pradesh and heaped more runs. He retired in 2014 with eight Ranji titles to his name, foraying into coaching and consultancy roles.

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#4 Amarjit Kaypee

Mazumdar was touted as the 'next Sachin Tendulkar' but in hindsight ended up as the 'next Amarjit Kaypee'. Kaypee, with his 7623 runs and 27 Ranji Trophy tons, was the highest run-getter in the competition before Mazumdar broke his records.

A master of the cover-drive, Kaypee was a domestic giant in the 1980s and 90s, with his centuries drawing headline space more often than his peers. Born in Jalandhar, he played for both Punjab and Haryana but the lion's share of his exploits came for the latter. In his first season there (1986-87), he smashed his highest first-class score, a magnificent 210, against Delhi.

His best form came after he cemented his place as a reliable middle-order batter in the 1990-91 season, where Kapil Dev led Haryana to their first and only Ranji Trophy title. A chart-topping 940 runs at 84.45, including twin 150-plus scores in the quarter-finals in a title win followed by a 800-run season at an average of 101.75, made a national call-up feel like a realistic and well-deserved possibility.

But like others on this list, fate played the wet blanket. He was 31 yet quite fit, had put in consistent performances every season and, by his own admission, had rarely suffered any injuries but was considered too old for the national team.

It was also a time when selectors avoided picking too many players from the same zone (North, South, West and East). So even though Kaypee was the best in the country as a batter, he had to lose his spot to all-rounders like Kapil Dev, Ajay Jadeja, Vijay Yadav and Chetan Sharma who were ahead in the pecking order from North.

His passion drove him to play till 2000s as a 40-year-old, following which he fulfilled coaching and refereeing roles for Haryana and the BCCI, respectively.

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#5 BB Nimbalkar

The last and the oldest name in our list could be none other than Babasaheb Nimbalkar. He's famously remembered as the Indian who came closest to breaking Sir Don Bradman's then-world record of 452 runs in a single first-class innings.

Playing for Maharashtra against Kathiawar in 1948, he reached 443 in 494 minutes, hitting 49 fours and a six, when Kathiawar's then-ruler Thakore Saheb Shri Pradyumansinhji Lakhajirajsinhji decided to forfeit the match citing boredom. In a later interview, Nimbalkar recalled receiving a text from Bradman himself, where the Australian great ranked the Mumbaikar's innings above his own.

A complete all-rounder, Nimbalkar was a superb stroke-player, a handy medium pacer who could sway the new ball and also a capable wicketkeeper. He lost his best years between 1939 and 1946 because of the second World War, but still ended up with 4,841 runs in first-class cricket at an average of 47.93.

Former Test cricketer Madhav Mantri, in an interview with DNA, recalled about Nimbalkar:

"To score 400-plus in an innings requires stamina. It’s not a joke. The poor guy lost his best years from 1939 to 1946 because of the War. He deserved to play for India but never got a chance. Look at players like Sunil (Gavaskar) and Sachin (Tendulkar). They were spotted early and given the chance. But Nimbalkar never had any ill-feelings for anyone. He was a thorough gentleman and he never showed any pride that he was the record holder. We played a lot of cricket together. He was a beautiful stroke player, a fast scorer and beautiful to watch. Maharashtra was a weak team then. They seldom made it past the first or second round of Ranji Trophy. But Nimbalkar towered over his teammates."

Nimbalkar's 443* remains the highest score by a cricketer not to have played even a single Test.

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