IPL: 5 one-season wonders everybody has forgotten about

The Indian Premier League, since its advent in 2008, has been the cynosure of criticism from orthodox pundits of the game. One of the most pertinent arguments put forward against the cash-rich tournament has been the emergence of one-season wonders who would flatter to deceive before fading away into oblivion soon after.The trend has surprisingly continued for the last eight seasons as the league has never disappointed in throwing up a phenomenon or two each time.These yesteryear ‘stars’, however, continued to extinguish after 10 months, with admirable consistency – as if they had always been destined to. The viewership, as a consequence, began to dwindle once this trend was established.As the eighth season of the IPL nears, let us take a look back at five unfortunate cricketers who shot to fame overnight and raised expectations by leaps and bounds only to fail next season and die quiet deaths in public memory.

#5 Pradeep Sangwan

Delhi Daredevils’ Pradeep Sangwan

Pradeep Sangwan’s debut for Delhi as a 17-year-old in the 2007-08 Ranji Trophy season, where he scalped 33 wickets at an average of 19.24, earned him a call-up to the U-19 World Cup in Malayasia. There, he impressed with an admirable display of fast bowling with a spell of 5/44 against South Africa in the group stages.

A year later, Sangwan once again catapulted to fame for his remarkable outings in the Delhi Daredevil jersey. 15 victims from 13 matches with the best match figures of 3/18 made him an invaluable part of the Delhi outfit. The promise shown, however, was not matched up to by his 2010 IPL performances – where his average climbed to 28.66.

The left-armer, who idolizes Wasim Akram, turned up in only 3 IPL games in the following three years before being tested positive for a prohibited steroid during his stint with the Kolkata Knight Riders in 2013. He was banned from cricket for 18 months, thereby effectively making him vanish from the cricketing radar for the last couple of years.

#4 Sreenath Aravind

Royal Challengers players congratulate Sreenath Aravind

A promising left-arm seamer from Karnataka, Sreenath Aravind turned up for the Bengaluru outfit in IPL 4 and went on to create havoc. With 21 wickets in 13 matches at a startling strike-rate of 13.14, he concluded the season as RCB’s leading wicket-taker before being involved with the team in the 2011 Champions’ Trophy where they lost to the Mumbai Indians.

He earned a national call-up for the England tour in the same year although he didn’t get a match. The 2012 IPL saw him feature in just a single game where he leaked 48 runs off 3 wicketless overs. The ensuing seasons conveniently wiped him off from public memory as he went back to doing the hard yards for Karnataka once again in the domestic circuit.

#3 Manpreet Gony

Chennai Super Kings’ Manpreet Gony

Chennai SuperKings’ leading wicket-taker in 2008 had been Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s go-to man during the inaugural season, the conclusion of which witnessed him turning out in national colors against Hong Kong and Bangladesh. The massive reputation built on IPL performances gave way once a string of domestic failures sidelined him from national reckoning.

The sturdy seamer from Punjab with a tendency of hitting the deck had created a furore when he scalped an impressive tally of 17 wickets from 16 matches in the first IPL season. As injuries plagued his career, Gony seemed to lose his effectiveness, the result of which was him getting lesser and lesser matches in the following seasons.

Failing to capitalize on the eight matches that he got in 2013 ended with him being out of contention for the whole 2014 version of the tournament. Although not technically out of the cricketing radar, it remains to be seen whether his new employers at KXIP decide to give him a match or two after such a long break.

#2 Paul Valthaty

Kings XI Punjab’s Paul Valthaty

Paul Chandrasekhar Valthaty was deemed to be the next big thing in T20 cricket after he smashed an unbeaten 120 off 63 balls against Chennai SuperKings in 2011. He outshone the likes of Adam Gilchrist and Shaun Marsh at the top of the innings en route to ending the season with 463 runs from 14 matches at an average of 35.61 and a strike-rate of 136.98.

Hailing from Mumbai, Valthaty had earlier made headlines for making it to the U-19 World Cup in 2002 alongwith Irfan Pathan and Stuart Binny. An eye injury sustained against Bangladesh ruled him out of the World Cup and forced him into hibernation before his rocketing to limelight in IPL 4.

The Kings XI opener, who can bowl some much-needed right-arm medium pace, fell short of maintaining his touch in the next season as he lingered around for only 6 matches scoring 30 runs before being forced to make way for more deserving alternatives. In his only match in 2013, he scored 6 runs against Sunrisers Hyderabad and got subsequently chucked out of the team in 2014. His last domestic appearance was for Air India in February last year.

#1 Swapnil Asnodkar

Rajasthan Royals’ Swapnil Asnodkar

The diminutive hard-hitter from Goa raised quite a few eyebrows when he impressed the Rajasthan Royals skipper Shane Warne in 2008. His daring stroke-play and aggressive approach to the game turned out to be the key for Royals’ triumphant run in the inaugural season of the IPL.

Nicknamed ‘Goa Cannon’ by Warne himself, Asnodkar was hailed as one of the future stars who, if handled well, could develop into a destructive right-hand batsman. Blossoming under the Australian legend, the 24-year-old accumulated 311 runs in only nine matches at the end of the season.

The graph, however, has been downhill since then. In the next three years, Asnodkar featured in 11 more games scoring barely more than a 100 runs. His average plummeted to 21.15 and he never got a match after the one against Kings XI Punjab on April 21, 2011. Four years later, he has entirely disappeared from the cricketing arena leaving no trace behind even in the reserve benches.