10 most over-rated international cricketers in the history

So many cricketers over the past showed unbelievable potential at the domestic level but failed to deliver it on the International stage. It is a common thing in any sport as donning the International jersey, representing your country with millions of people taking note of what you’re doing is a very different thing to scoring consistently in domestic conditions. International cricket, especially in countries like Australia, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka etc, where the fans are very demanding, can disrupt the players’ mental state. Sometimes the selectors end up trusting some players way too many times despite consistent failures, which doesn’t go well with the fans at all. In the past and even in the current scenario, there were so many cricketers who fall in the over-rated category. Here’s a list of 10 names who promised a lot, got a lot of chances to represent their country but never lived up to the expectations. 1. Shahid Afridi Shahid Afridi. (Photo Source: Twitter) This could be very conflicting for a lot of Pakistani fans, considering he’s worshipped in that part of the world. But Shahid Afridi never really rose up to the expectations he created with his early burst. He smashed a 37-ball century early in his career and his leg-spin was touted to be game changing in the early 21st century. He picked up 395 wickets in 398 ODIs, less than wicket-a-game, which is in very disappointing for anyone with over 300 ODIs. His cult status which he received through aggressive batting carried him with the team for a long time before he retired from International cricket in May 2018. He played just 27 Tests in his career. 2. Umar Akmal Umar Akmal. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images) While India had Virat Kohli taking giant strides in International cricket as the next big star, Pakistan had Umar Akmal. For a very long period of time, there were so many beautiful articles written on his potential, but that barely reflected at the International level. He did play over 100 ODIs being the “next big thing”, but he never became a considerable thing for that side. He scored a hundred on his Test debut against New Zealand and scored two centurions in ODIs, which happen to be his only three-figure scores in International cricket. For someone who plays in the top four regularly, that is a very embarrassing record. He soon was expelled from the squad and is not being considered for selection currently. Also check: 10 Cricketers who were unfairly treated by the Indian selectors 3. Denesh Ramdin An outstanding wicket-keeper, make no mistake, but Denesh Ramdin was not the cricketer who was taking West Indies anywhere forward. He was a pretty old-fashioned cricketer who excelled only at one art, which was keeping and he was more or less a lower order batsman from whom no one expected runs at regular intervals. His batting did improve over the course of time and he showed some signs of how good he can be, but he never reached the potential he promised. It was a mystery as to why he was trusted for 74 Tests and 139 ODIs for the West Indies, and he averages nearly 25 in both formats. 4. Ishant Sharma Ishant Sharma. (Photo by Michael Dodge/Getty Images) The tall, lanky fast bowler who ripped apart the Australian batting lineup in the 2007/08 Test series, was touted as the next big thing in Indian cricket. But Ishant Sharma didn’t really live up to the expectations surrounding him and somehow managed to continue at the highest level despite facing stiff competition from some great young talent in the Indian domestic circuit. His prowess with the white ball was clearly not up to the mark, which saw him get ousted from the squad soon after the 2013 Champions Trophy. He is somehow retaining his place in the Test squad not making the numbers one would expect after playing 90 Tests. After not getting picked for any side in the 2018 IPL, he came back for the Delhi Capitals in 2019. Also check: Tests 2022-23: Ranking Top 10 Test Batters 5. Albie Morkel Albie Morkel. (Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images) When he burst into the scene with some scintillating performances in the shortest format, everyone expected Albie Morkel to be the next big all-rounder for their country after the great Lance Klusener. Despite all the promise he showed, he could play just 1 Test and 58 ODIs for his country, picking up 51 wickets in aggregate. His contribution in the T20 format too wasn’t pretty great at the International level. The most memorable spell of his career came with the Chennai Super Kings, where he won two IPL titles under MS Dhoni and also one Champions League winner medal. He later joined Royal Challengers Bangalore but wasn’t up to the mark for them. 6. Chris Cairns New Zealand’s Chris Cairns. (Photo by Ross Setford/Getty Images) Chris Cairns spent a lot of time around courts proving his innocence in the match-fixing claims but another major disappointment was to have not achieved anything significant despite promising a lot in his early days. He was the son of former New Zealand cricketer Lance Cairns and his career almost spanned 17 years. He played a lot of cricket during this time period, representing the Kiwis in 62 Tests and 215 ODIs. But his contributions came in bits and pieces, which didn’t do any good to his reputation. He also represented Nottinghamshire in the English County for a long time. Also check: Most hated XI in international cricket 7. Graeme Hick Graeme Hick. (Photo by Munden/Popperfoto/Getty Images) One of the greatest figures in domestic cricket of all time, Graeme Hick has registered some outstanding records to his name during his spell in County cricket. He is also one of the very few cricketers to have represented two different countries in the World Cup, having played for both Zimbabwe in 1983 and for England in 1992, 1996 and 199. Yet, he could never deliver to the potential he had at the International level. His batting average in both ODIs and Tests were nowhere close to the promise he showed in English domestic cricket. He was also a decent off-spinner in his early days but then he concentrated completely on his batting. 8. S Sreesanth Sreesanth (Photo Source: X/Twitter) Exuberant, aggressive and very vehement — Sreesanth seemed to have all the qualities needed for a good fast bowler. He also had great pace, but he could never control his attributes properly to end up as a star cricketer. He also got involved in a spot-fixing scandal, which pretty much put a full-stop to his career in this country. He often went over the line in some of his one-on-one duels with overseas cricketers. Although such passion was a common sight for most fast bowlers, his antics sometimes went overboard. His career didn’t finish the way he would’ve wanted, but in hindsight, he had very little chance of becoming big. Also check: 10 Legendary cricketers who deserved a farewell match 9. Ravi Bopara (Photo Source: Getty Images) Before Ben Stokes became an important member of the English side, Ravi Bopara was their main man as an all-rounder. His medium pace and his exploits in the middle overs were rated a little too high and he ended up playing more games than he should’ve. Nevertheless, he got ousted when the squad was in the rebuilding phase. He played 120 ODIs and 13 Tests for the team and currently is playing T20 tournaments across the globe. It has been a while since he has played in the IPL and is spending a lot of time in the Bangladesh Premier League and Pakistan Super League. He represents Essex in the English County cricket. 10. Angelo Mathews Angelo Mathews. (Photo Source: Twitter) The Sri Lankan fans expected so much from Angelo Mathews after the retirement of their stalwarts Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara, but the last four years have been pretty mediocre for Angelo Mathews. It is also difficult to understand how he is maintaining his place in the XI despite not bowling a lot in the last couple of years. Injuries have plagued his career big time, but if he’s in the side as a batsman, he doesn’t contribute regularly at all. There were very high standards set to him when he entered the scene and also managed to earn a couple of very lucrative IPL contracts. Despite having over 12,000 International runs, Mathews has just failed to deliver.

Topics

Featured Section

Current Series

Cricket Fantasy Tips

Cricket Stats

IPL Teams

ICC Rankings

Interviews

Twitter Reactions

Cricket Appeal

Social Tracker

More Links

# Follow Us

Other Sports

10 most over-rated international cricketers in the history

Some of these players represented their national side for a much longer time than they deserved.

9. Ravi Bopara

Latest Articles

Gill hurts finger during practice, doubtful for Perth Test

IPL 2025 Auction: AI predicted 18-Member squad for CSK

Anshul Kamboj reflects on his 10-wicket haul in Ranji Trophy