IPL: 3 uncapped Indian cricketers who have taken a hat-trick

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is the biggest platform available in the country to young, aspiring cricketers. Although it isn't exactly heaven for the bowlers, many upcoming talents have been snapped up for large prices in the auction and have gone on to make a name for themselves.

A hat-trick is a very rare occurrence in any format, and the IPL is no different. Only 19 hat-tricks have been taken in the history of the tournament and of these bowlers, only three have not been capped by their national side.

Interestingly, all three are Indian. Even more interestingly, all three hat-tricks were taken by bowlers playing for the Rajasthan Royals (RR).

In this article, we take a look at the 3 uncapped Indian bowlers who have taken a hat-trick in the IPL.

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#3 Ajit Chandila (IPL 2012)

Ajit Chandila was involved in a disgraceful fixing scandal

A restrictive bowler who bowled tight lines and lengths, Ajit Chandila seemed to be perfectly suited for the T20 format. In the 2012 edition of the IPL, he was a compete unknown, but the wily off-spinner became the seventh bowler to take a hat-trick in the IPL against the Pune Warriors India (PWI).

Off the fifth and sixth balls of the innings, Chandila scalped the wickets of Jesse Ryder and Sourav Ganguly respectively, before dismissing Robin Uthappa off the first ball of the third over. The Haryana spinner even took another wicket - Anustup Majumdar - to finish with figures of 4/13 in his 4 overs, a Man of the Match performance.

Chandila was then caught in an ugly spot-fixing scandal in 2013 along with teammates S Sreesanth and Ankeet Chavan and after an inquiry into the matter, he was given a life ban by the BCCI in 2016.

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#2 Pravin Tambe (IPL 2014)

Pravin Tambe has been snaffled by the Trinbago Knight Riders in the CPL

Pravin Tambe is one of the greatest success stories of the IPL. The leg-spinner made his IPL debut for RR when he was 41 years old, and went on to play for two more teams in the Gujarat Lions and Sunrisers Hyderabad.

While he was active for RR, the veteran picked up a hat-trick against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), who were chasing 177 for victory and in a good position at the end of 15 overs despite Shane Watson having just picked up a couple of wickets.

Tambe dismissed Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan and Ryan ten Doeschate off the first three balls of the 16th over, completely derailing the KKR chase to lead his team to a 10-run win. He was rightfully awarded the Man of the Match.

The 48-year-old did find a buyer in the 2020 IPL auction but was ruled ineligible for the tournament as he had already played in a foreign T20 league. Tambe became the first Indian to be picked up a Caribbean Premier League (CPL) team recently and will feature in the upcoming edition of the competition.

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#1 Shreyas Gopal (IPL 2019)

Shreyas Gopal was as shocked as viewers were when he dismissed Kohli and De Villiers

Shreyas Gopal is the latest bowler to have taken a hat-trick in the IPL, and his is undoubtedly the most high-profile one.

In a rain-shortened game against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 2019 edition, the Karnataka leggie dismissed Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Marcus Stoinis off the last three balls of the second over the innings.

RCB managed to reach a score of 62 runs in their allotted 5 overs and although RR were at 41/1 in the 4th over, the match did not see a result due to rain. In the context of the tournament, RCB were eliminated from playoff contention, while RR's hopes stayed alive.

Gopal has been extremely consistent at the first-class level and is the only player on this list still in contention to feature for India.

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