The Indian Premier League has done wonders for Indian cricket, atleast in limited overs cricket. There is a huge pool of uncapped domestic players in the country who have had the honours to rub shoulders with the who’s who of the game and if given an opportunity, they are ready to take on the best in the game. No target seems too big and sixes are being hit at will. Star players like Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal and Hardik Pandya can be termed as the finds of the IPL who have done wonders for the Indian national team and had there been no IPL, probably couldn’t have risen the ranks so early. No matter what the pundits of the game say, there have been more pros than cons of this multi million dollar tournament. However, not everyone is as lucky as Hardik Pandya, not everyone could cash on their IPL success and reach further heights. Not everyone could repeat their form throughout seasons and became just a one season star. One such disappointing story is of Paul Valthaty’s
Paul Valthaty first made heads turn during the 2011 season of the Indian Premier League. He scored the first century of the 2011 IPL against the very formidable Chennai Super Kings. His 120 not out in 63 balls helped Kings XI Punjab chase down the huge 189-run target with six wickets and five balls to spare at Mohali. Nobody had noticed his game before that and he was on every newspaper’s front page post that innings. Well, that is the beauty of IPL, isn’t it? However, this was not his first noteworthy performance. Valthaty had slogged for seasons in India’s domestic cricket and was even a part of 2002 India-19 squad that took part in the Under 19 World Cup in New Zealand along with the likes of Parthiv Patel and Irfan Pathan. In the next game after his century, he scored 75 runs and took 4 wickets against Deccan Chargers and overall had a great 2011 IPL. He scored 463 runs from 14 games at an average of 35.61 and a strike rate of 126.98 and also took 7 crucial wickets. Valthaty was being talked about everywhere and he was in the verge of a national team call but he could not replicate his 2011 success in the net seasons and gradually all the hype dies down. He could not achieve much success with Mumbai and then shifted to Himachal Pradesh after his IPL success but could not achieve much there as well. Younger players took over and eventually he lost all hopes of a national comeback. He has not been picked up by any IPL franchise this season and continues to play domestic cricket for Air India.