2009 IPL Champions- Deccan Chargers: Where are they now?

Deccan Chargers finished the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the bottom of the points table. They had a lot of stars in their team but nothing quite came out of those stars. The Hyderabad-based team took the IPL by storm when they won the league next year.

In 2009, IPL was taken away from its home to South Africa where the bottom two teams of the 2008 season battled it out for the title. Adam Gilchrist led Deccan Chargers were eventual winners of the closely contested final and overshadowed Anil Kumble-led Royal Challengers Bangalore. It has been eight years since then and the things are ever so changed now.

The times have turned good for some while the gods have had only bad luck for some of the players from the winning team. Here are the players from that Deccan Chargers team and we will have a look their current whereabouts.

1. Venugopal Rao

If you are an ardent cricket fan you will know this man. This little guy was known as the first Indian super-sub player was one of the hardest hitters in the Deccan Chargers line-up.

He never quite made an impression while playing for the national team but was an integral part of his IPL team. He played his last first-class game for Gujarat back in 2015 and is away from the domestic circuit since then.

2. Azhar Bilakhia

Bilakhia played some good knocks for the Baroda team until 2009 but couldn’t make his name playing for the Deccan Chargers team. He could not capitalize on this experience and was ousted from his domestic team as well. At the age of 24, this young man retired and started looking after their family business.