Paul Valthaty
Paul Valthaty promised much in his magical run at the 2011 edition of the Indian Premier League. He scored a flawless century and followed it up with a mesmerising 75-run knock in the next game. He scored 463 runs at an average of 35.61 in that season but faded away after that.
The right-hander was once a possible contender for the Indian Under-19 squad in 2002, but couldn’t make it owing to an eye injury he suffered prior to the showpiece event. Valthaty played a single One-Day Ranji match for Mumbai in 2006, after years of struggle to make a mark in the top tier. Finally, he was picked up by Rajasthan Royals in 2009 and played a couple of matches for them which helped him earn a berth for Mumbai’s T20 squad.
Having played a few crucial innings for them, he was roped in by Kings XI Punjab for the 2011 season where he shined. After that, unfortunately, he played just a handful of matches in the 2012 edition and a single match in 2013.
Manpreet Gony
A fairy tale in the inaugural season, well-built fast bowler Manpreet Gony was the find of the tournament. He took 17 wickets for the Chennai Super Kings, helping them reach the finals and literally overshadowed his fellow compatriots Makhaya Ntini and Albie Morkel. The sudden shift of the IPL to South Africa did not help the Punjab-born lad and he had a poor run during the 2009 edition.
He was never a regular from then on, having chipped in with a few matches each season. In 2011, Deccan Chargers paid $290,000 to secure his services, but it turned out to be a rather bad investment. The last match he played before this season was in 2013 for the Kings XI Punjab and then he was out of the picture until the Gujarat Lions revived his IPL career by including him in the squad for the on-going season.
The main highlight of his career was when he was picked up for the Indian side during the 2008 Asia Cup in Pakistan. In the group match against Bangladesh, he took a couple of wickets but unfortunately it was the last match he played as one of the Men in Blue.
Swapnil Asnodkar
One of the most promising finds of Goa in the last decade, Swapnil Asnodkar became an overnight sensation during the inaugural IPL in 2008. The little man scored a blistering 60 run knock on his debut against the Kolkata Knight Riders to guide the Rajasthan Royals to a victory.
Asnodkar played 9 matches that season, scoring 311 runs at an average of 34.55 and a strike rate of 133.47. Along with ex-South African captain Graeme Smith, he was part of a formidable opening pair, one of the reasons the Royals won the inaugural edition of the tournament. The following season was not quite memorable for him, having made only 98 runs in 8 appearances.
Though he is yet to be called up for national duty, the Goa-based batsman has enjoyed a fair share of success in the domestic circuit. In 2011, Asnodkar played his last IPL match scoring just 9 runs, after which he completely disappeared and was nowhere to be found in the annual T20 meet.
Pradeep Sangwan
Storming into the domestic circuit for Delhi back in the 2007-08 seasons with 33 wickets at an average of 19.24, Sangwan was an automatic choice of the Under-19 World Cup in 2008. His heroic display at the event in Malaysia tempted Delhi Daredevils to tag him in the team for the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League.
The left-arm pacer was fairly successful in 2008, but the IPL season in South Africa did wonders for him. The bowler-friendly pitches in the rainbow nation were exploited by the youngster to a large extent and aided him to pick up 15 wickets in the campaign. Unfortunately, the Daredevils slipped away in the semi-finals stage in spite of topping the group tables.
After a consistent show in the 2010 season, he shifted his loyalties to the Kolkata Knight Riders, but the move was not fruitful. Sangwan did not feature in a single match that season, thus drawing curtains on another IPL success story. From then on, he played one or two matches in a season but was never a regular candidate. After being overlooked in 2014 and 2015, he is currently playing for the Gujarat Lions.
Sreenath Aravind
The effect this left-arm bowler had in the blink of an eye is comparable to none and took the whole tournament by surprise in the 2011 edition. After showing some promise in the domestic matches for Karnataka, he was tossed the ball in the biggest T20 event in the world by the Bangalore-based Royal Challengers.
The magical left-arm produced as many as 21 dismissals in just 13 games, ripping apart batsmen on the other end of the 22 yards. He was the leading wicket-taker for the Royal Challengers Bangalore and helped them qualify for the play-offs. But, just as he rose to prominence, Arvind’s downfall followed the same pattern.
In 2012, he played just a single match in which he was hammered for 48 runs in just 3 overs. After that, he was given a chance in 2015, where he took 8 wickets in 5 ties and another 11 scalps in the next season, but he never performed close to what he was expected to deliver after the fairy tale start.
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