5 Team India cricketers you may not know played the IPL ft. Sanjay Bangar

The Indian Premier League (IPL) has been a massive hive for talent ever since its inception in 2008. While the current landscape is a combination of experienced T20 specialists from round the world, and a slew of emerging talent, it was not such a case in the formative years.

With the competition still looking to earn reputation, the squads more or less included household names, along with some veteran names. Also, considering that India did not have such a lucrative talent pool back then, it gave room for some senior names to feature in their twilight years before the next generation took over.

In fact, most of the major domestic stalwarts and players in Team India's early T20I setup (barring Dinesh Mongia), had a run in the IPL at some point or the other, since there were no T20 specialists back then.

On that note, let us take a look at five Team India cricketers you may not know played the IPL.

#1 Sanjay Bangar

The former all-rounder played his last white-ball contest in 2012, and as a result, he had a shot at featuring in the earlier editions of the IPL. He represented the Deccan Chargers side that finished last in the inaugural season, and had a stint with the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in 2009.

Bangar, unfortunately, did not have a prolific time in the competition, with only 49 runs and four wickets produced from his 12 appearances. He did manage to dismiss some players that he would go onto work with as a coach, in the form of Suresh Raina and Ajinkya Rahane. The medium pacer also dismissed his former batting partner, Rahul Dravi,d in his penultimate appearance in the IPL.

Sanjay Bangar continues to be heavily involved in the IPL despite not having a memorable playing career in the competition. Since his retirement, he has been in the coaching staff of multiple franchises, including the Kings XI Punjab (now renamed as Punjab Kings), and the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB).

#2 Abhinav Mukund

The Tamil Nadu cricketer piled runs in the domestic cricket, but could not get going in international cricket, featuring in only seven Tests. He continued to play cricket until 2020, and his prolonged career also includes minor stints in the IPL with two of the biggest franchises in the league

Abhinav Mukund is one of the few players to represent both the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). He represented the five-time winners in the inaugural edition, and switched to the current reigning champions after five years.

However, he could not avail opportunities as such, and ended with only three appearances in total, where he scored 19 runs, which includes a golden duck on debut, that too while coming into bat at No.8.

#3 Faiz Fazal

Another domestic veteran with over 20 years of experience, Faiz Fazal played only one international match for India. Despite recording a fifty on debut, he did not avail another chance as he could not keep up with the intense competition in the talent pool.

Faiz Fazal was not particularly renowned for his T20 exploits as much as his red-ball heroics, but managed to land a decent stint with the Rajasthan Royals (RR) in 2010 and 2011 seasons. He recorded 12 appearances, scoring 183 runs at an average of 18.30 and a strike rate of 105.78.

Interestingly, he was run out across three successive innings, spread across two seasons, with two of them coming at the same venue (Eden Gardens) as well.

#4 Wasim Jaffer

The veteran opening batter had a promising run for India in the longest format, and also had a respectable, decent T20 career, where he recorded 29 appearances to score 616 runs at an average of 28.00 and a strike rate of 130. Among those matches, includes a short-lived IPL career with RCB across the first couple of seasons.

Jaffer opened the batting with Rahul Dravid for the franchise in the memorable inaugural match in the IPL against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). Although he was dismissed for six runs in that crushing loss at home, he responded with a brilliant fifty in his next innings.

However, his IPL career came to a sombre end as he failed to record double figures in each of his last four innings. He ended with 130 runs in eight matches at an average of 16.25 and a strike rate of 107.44 in the IPL.

#5 Sunil Joshi

The left-arm spinner, who had last featured for India in 2001, was part of the RCB setup in 2008. While he may not have had a stellar IPL career after just four appearances, resulting in just one wicket, his claim to fame in this competition might just be the fact that he was the most economical bowler when KKR slammed 222 in the first-ever match.

While the rest of the RCB bowling unit failed to contain KKR and Brendon McCullum, Joshi finished with figures of 0-26 off his three overs with an economy of 8.67. He was the only bowler to have an economy of less than nine. Moreover, he was also the final wicket to fall in the run chase, confirming KKR's iconic 140-run triumph.