5 Indian openers who showed promise before fading away 

#3 Sadagopan Ramesh

Sadagoppan Ramesh was a talented opening batsman from Tamil Nadu, who looked like India's answer to Saeed Anwar. When he scored a brilliant century against West Indies A where he faced the likes of Ian Bishop, Franklyn Rose and Cameron Cuffy, Krishnamachari Srikkanth advocated his inclusion and the selectors obliged by giving him an opportunity against the touring the Pakistani team in 1999.

Ramesh showed courage and big match temperament in his debut series facing the pace-trio of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar and the spin of Saqlain Mushtaq and Mushtaq Ahmed with equanimity and scored his maiden fifty, a 96 in the 2nd Test at Delhi. He even averaged 50 after 6 Tests which made many believe that India had unearthed a world class opening batsman.

There were experts who pointed out to his faulty footwork and technique and had a strong opinion that he would suffer in alien conditions. He too had an issue with conversion rate throwing away good starts and struggling with soft dismissals. Once Sehwag became a success story, Ramesh fell out of the selector's radar.

Ramesh now acts in Tamil movies and he has done commentary stints in TNPL.

Sadagopan Ramesh: Career Statistics