Despite having sustained success in List A cricket, some batters never donned their national caps in ODIs. Here is a list of six, some of whom still have a chance.
ODIs began to take off in the 1980s, finally culminating in a boom in the 1990s and the 2000s before T20s began to shrink the ODI calendar. During the ODI peak, whoever found sustained success in List A cricket usually made it to the highest level (even if they were not considered for Test cricket).
Graeme Pollock
M: 118 | 4,656 runs at 50.06, HS: 222*, 12 hundreds
Pollock’s 60.97 is still the second-best batting average in Test cricket with a 2,000-run cut-off, and there is little doubt that he would have done something comparable in ODIs, but South Africa’s apartheid ban came just before the first ever ODI. One of the early List A giants, he ruled the format in domestic cricket in South Africa (he never played in the England domestic circuit, unlike several compatriots), averaging more than 50 when few did, and scoring the first double hundred in the format.
Michael Klinger
M: 177 | 7,449 runs at 49.33, HS: 166*, 18 hundreds
Klinger made his List A debut at 18, in 1998/99: more than a decade later, Australia were still the world champions, and were even the twice-defending winners of the Champions Trophy. It was very difficult to break into a team of that quality. Klinger played for three Australian states and for Gloucestershire, but he was overlooked for both the Test and ODI squads. When the opportunity finally came in February 2017, it was for three T20Is.
Abhinav Mukund
M: 84 | 4,163 runs at 52.03, HS: 147, 12 hundreds
Mukund played seven Tests when India were zeroing in on their opening pair for the 2010s, but despite excellent records for Tamil Nadu, South Zone, and India A, an ODI cap never came. He toured England with India A as early as in 2010 (and averaged 52.60 there), but once Rohit Sharma joined Shikhar Dhawan at the top, breaking into the India ODI side became near-impossible.
Ben Slater
M: 76 | 3,224 runs at 49.60, HS: 164, 8 hundreds
He may be 34 and active, but Slater does not seem to be in line for an ODI cap. While a heavy scorer in the domestic circuit – first for Derbyshire, then for Nottinghamshire – he could never break through even when England used second-string sides for relatively weaker oppositions. Sam Hain, who would otherwise have easily made it to the list, has played two ODIs during those series.
Devdutt Padikkal
M: 38 | 2,676 runs at 83.62, HS: 152, 13 hundreds
Padikkal’s 38-innings career can be neatly classified into three groups – 13 hundreds, 13 other fifty-plus scores, and 12 other innings: that tells how prolific he has been. Yet, with India (rightly) sticking to their extremely strong batters for more than two years now, he is not even close to getting an ODI cap (though he has played Tests and T20Is): for that, he has to go past Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad. Of course, he has played in the other two formats.
Darwish Rasooli
M: 64 | 2,603 runs at 51.03, HS: 155, 8 hundreds
Nearly eight years ago, Rasooli hit the headlines when he resurrected Afghanistan from 50-3 to help them chase 189 against Pakistan at the 2018 U19 World Cup. He averages 60.93 in first-class cricket and 51.03 in List A (and even keeps wicket at times), but has not played for Afghanistan in any of these formats, and it is not clear why. He is only 26, but Afghan cricketers typically break through at a younger age.
