India Players Who Were Once 'Rested' But Never Returned

Will Sanju Samson fade away like Yuvraj, Shikhar Dhawan? [Source: AFP]

Sanju Samson has reportedly been rested from the India squad for the upcoming Zimbabwe tour. His performances in the Ireland and England matches have been underwhelming, and although no explanation has been given, it can be understood that Samson fell out of favour with the Indian team management because of his inconsistent performances.

Following the Zimbabwe snub, reports later emerged of a possible Asian Games 2026 snub of the Kerala-born batter, which further hints at a much more brutal future for the India batter.

This might as well have drawn the curtains on the career of Samson as a T20I batter, as several other instances saw such massive snubs. 

Veteran Indian cricketers have faced such brutal treatment from the BCCI, where they were rested and never recalled. Here’s a list of players who faded from the India setup after being rested by the BCCI.

1) Suresh Raina

Suresh Raina, aka Mr. IPL, suffered brutal treatment from the Board of Control for Cricket in India despite recording 5,615 runs in ODIs and 1,605 runs in T20Is. The explosive left-handed batter was surprisingly axed after being rested in September 2018. 

Suresh Raina was dropped for the Asia Cup that year, and he never returned to the Indian international team. This might have been because of his poor 2018 England tour, where he scored only 27 runs from three matches and failed to make an impact on the tour. 

Ahead of that, in the Nidahas 2018 Tri-series as well as the South Africa tour in 2017, Raina failed to perform consistently, and that might have been the reason why the BCCI thought of moving on from Raina and giving chances to younger talents.

2) Virender Sehwag

Virender Sehwag's omission from the India setup was a surprising one. After being omitted from the T20 setup in 2012, Sehwag was reportedly rested by the management. 

Sehwag's performances too took a dip after the 2012 Commonwealth Bank Series, and his last match in the ODI format was against Pakistan, where he managed an average of only 17.50 in the series. 

The Test series against Australia too saw a poor outing, with the BCCI effectively turning towards the pair of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan. 

As Virender Sehwag was rested in 2013, he was never recalled into the setup, and the cricketer eventually retired from the game in 2015.

3) Shikhar Dhawan

After dismal performances in 2021 and 2022, India's Gabbar, Shikhar Dhawan, the opener who replaced Virender Sehwag, was rested from the T20 World Cup 2021 squad to give youngsters a go and was later phased out of the shortest format permanently. 

In the ODI format too, in late 2022, after leading India's ODI side against New Zealand, Dhawan was rested for the following home series, with Shubman Gill coming in to replace him. 

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With Gill outperforming with the bat, Dhawan was never recalled, and he eventually announced his official retirement in August 2024. 

This called for a sudden and shocking retirement despite Dhawan being a prominent player in the India setup.

4) Ambati Rayudu

Ambati Rayudu probably had one of the most shocking omissions in the history of Indian cricket. 

From the 2019 ICC World Cup, Rayudu was shockingly snubbed. Just months before the tournament, Virat Kohli had locked him in as India's permanent No. 4 batter. Yet, he was completely phased out through a sequence of sudden tactical shifts. 

Following a spectacular 2018 IPL season with CSK, Ambati Rayudu was hailed as the solution to India's middle-order crisis. However, a minor dip during a home series against Australia in March 2019 prompted the selectors to rest him for the final matches. 

After the rest, when the official 15-man World Cup squad was announced in April 2019, Rayudu's name was shockingly absent, as Vijay Shankar was preferred over him by being labelled a three-dimensional all-rounder who could bat, bowl, and field exceptionally well. 

Realising the gravity of the exit, Rayudu announced his abrupt retirement from all forms of cricket on July 3, 2019, during the middle of the World Cup, even when he was in the prime of his cricketing career.

5) Amit Mishra

Amit Mishra was unexpectedly sidelined from India's national setup despite delivering one of the finest performances of his limited-overs career. 

In October 2016, with senior spinners rested, Mishra shouldered the spin attack and tore through the New Zealand batting line-up with an astonishing spell of five wickets for just 18 runs. 

Following that performance, the BCCI opted to rest Mishra for subsequent matches to try different bowling combinations. Later, he returned to play the T20I series against England in January 2017, which turned out to be his final appearance in an Indian jersey. 

Mishra then sustained a knee injury while fielding during the final T20I in Bengaluru. The BCCI officially ruled him out of the upcoming one-off Test and advised him to take a complete break to recover. 

He was replaced by Kuldeep Yadav, and Amit Mishra couldn't make it back to the India squad ever again. He announced his retirement from the game in September 2025.

6) Yuvraj Singh

The 2011 World Cup hero, Yuvraj Singh, was suddenly omitted in 2017 after the BCCI described it as part of a workload management policy. 

After battling back from cancer, Yuvraj made a sensational comeback to the ODI team in early 2017. He smashed a brilliant 150 against England and played decent cricket in the 2017 Champions Trophy. 

However, after the away tour against the West Indies in June, his form dipped noticeably, and he also sustained a minor hamstring injury. The team management sent him back home. Later, when the Sri Lanka squad was announced in August 2017, Yuvraj's name was missing. 

Amid immediate media uproar, chief selector MSK Prasad explicitly stated that Yuvraj had been rested and not dropped, adding that a new set of players would be given opportunities over the next four to five months and that the doors were never closed on anybody. 

Although that statement appeared encouraging, Yuvraj could never make it back, with the fitness criteria, according to him, suddenly changing. 

There was zero communication and no farewell for the World Cup hero, as Yuvraj later slammed the lack of transparency in the Indian cricket system. 

Feeling deeply disrespected, Yuvraj Singh officially announced his retirement from all formats of cricket in June 2019 without ever wearing the blue jersey again.

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