Subramaniam Badrinath

A domestic legend and a fine stroke player, Subramaniam Badrinath did everything at the domestic level but couldn’t establish himself as an international cricketer due to the presence of some amazing talents in the Indian cricket team. 

Badrinath made his Test debut against South Africa in 2010, scoring a fifty on debut before managing single-figure scores in the next two innings. Despite averaging over 50 in 145 first-class fixtures, the Tamil Nadu-born cricketer did not get the nod for Tests after 2010. Badrinath also secured the man of the match in his first and only T20 international, scoring 43 against the Men in Maroon in June 2011.

His finest performance in the domestic circuit came against Mumbai at their den in 2009-10, where he batted for over 11 hours for his amassing 250 runs in an innings. On the back of some amazing performances in the domestic circuit, he was once again called up to the limited-overs team for the series in England, replacing Sachin Tendulkar for the second time in his career but didn’t get an opportunity to play.

A decent hitter of the white ball, Badrinath was one of the vital cogs in Chennai Super Kings’ victorious campaigns in IPL 2010 and 2011. In 2010, he scored 356 runs while in 2011, the right-handed middle-order batsman mustered 396 runs, averaging over 50 which is a decent feat for any batsman. He went unsold in 2014, but Royal Challengers Bangalore picked him up in 2011, but he did not get a match for them. 

It would not be wrong to say that Badrinath was one of the unfulfilled talents and probably a lost genius. In September 2018, he announced his retirement from all forms of cricket

(As of April 2021)