Deepak Chahar

Rejection at 16, prodigy at 18 and oblivion at 24. It has been the story of Deepak Chahar so far. Back in 2008, when Greg Chappell was the director of the Rajasthan Cricket Academy, he had snubbed Deepak's abilities as a young fast bowler. Then he came storming into recognition by picking up 8 wickets in his debut innings and thus routing Hyderabad for 21, the lowest ever total in Indian domestic cricket.

However, the wings to his career have never attained full flight as he has been plagued by persistent injuries. Add to that his woes with the old ball and thus India would feel robbed of someone who could have achieved so much more. In six years of first-class cricket he has accounted for 105 wickets in 35 games at a not-to-be-noted average of 35.17. Even in the IPL, he had been a notable absentee despite being a part of Rajasthan Royals. In 2016, he got picked by the temporary franchise Rising Pune Supergiants whom he represented for two seasons.

The 2016 and 2017 seasons in the IPL weren't great for Chahar either although he did show flashes of his potential. At the domestic circuit, he was delivering the goods on a consistent basis but it requires performances in high profile tournaments like the IPL for the world to take notice. Plus the competition levels are much higher which definitely tests the cricketer in a big way. Chahar worked harder on his game and his stupendous success in the 2018 Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy (the main T20 domestic tournament in India) made him stake a claim at the IPL auctions where he got snapped up by the Chennai Super Kings.