Over the years, there have many cricketers of Indian origin who played for other countries. Starting from the days of Ranjit Sinhji, many famous cricketers who hailed from India and later represented a different country altogether.
So, we thought of looking back at the cricketers who either played for the Indian national team or played in the Indian domestic circuit before going on to play for another country.Here is the list.
Disclaimer: There can be other cricketers as well. But we picked the ones about whom we found conclusive data and evidence.
#1 Gul Mohammad
Gul Mohammad belonged to the rare breed of cricketers who have represented two countries in Tests. He played eight times for India and once for Pakistan.
Born in 1921, Gul, as a youth, played for Islamia College and made his debut in the Ranji Trophy in 1938 for Northern India.
An attacking left-handed batsman who could also bowl left-arm seamers at medium pace, Mohammad made his debut for India in 1946 but took Pakistan Citizenship in 1955. He played just one Test for his new country in 1956 before handling various roles in the Pakistan cricket body.
#2 Amir Elahi
Amir Elahi also belonged to the list of the twelve cricketers who have played for two different countries and he is also one of the twenty oldest cricketers to have played in a Test match.
Playing a single Test for India against Australia at Sydney in 1947, Elahi later played 5 Tests for Pakistan in 1952-53 and surprisingly all those Test matches were in India.
Though he started his career as a medium-paced bowler, later he turned to leg-breaks and googlies which gave him more prominence.
Playing for Baroda in the Ranji Trophy, Elahi scalped 193 wickets at an outstanding average of 24.72 and also helped Baroda to win the coveted prize in 1946-47.
Later he moved across the border to play for Pakistan and one of his finest moments of playing for Pakistan came in the Test match against India when he stitched a last-wicket partnership of 104 with Zulfiqar Ahmed at Madras.
#3 Abdul Hafeez Kardar
The legendary Pakistan skipper Imran Khan once talked about the importance of Abdul Hafeez Kardar in Pakistan cricket and he pointed out: After Kardar's retirement, Pakistan cricket was thrown to the wolves, the cricket bureaucrats whose progeny still rule the game .
Touted as the father figure of Pakistan cricket, the flamboyant Kardar played for India in the 1946 tour of England under the name Abdul Hafeez.
He led Pakistan in 23 Tests with his usual flair and achieved unprecedented highs. Never shy of expressing himself, Kardar ushered in a new era in the Pakistan cricket with his ingenious decisions on the field and he retired from international Test cricket in 1958.
#4 Krishna Chandran
The man who made his List A debut for Kerala later went on to represent the United Arab Emirates in international cricket.
Krishna Chandran was also the first Keralite to play for the United Arab Emirates when he was named in their squad for the Asian Cricket Council Premier League tournament in May 2014. He originally moved to the region from India in 2010.
A middle order batsman and medium pacer, Krishna Chandran had represented Mahaveer Jain College in Bangalore before moving up the Kerala age-group teams from U-19 to U-25.
Playing for the UAE, Krishna has picked up 7 wickets and 119 runs in 11 ODIs and surely the records do not look promising at all.
#5 Swapnil Patil
Patil, who hails from Mumbai, represented the state in the Under 19s and Under 22s before he moved to UAE to do the job that would give him the opportunity to play a lot of Cricket.
Making a sensational debut for the UAE team, Swapnil Patil came agonisingly close to make a century in his first game against Scotland at the Bert Sutcliffe Oval in Lincoln in the final of the World Cup Qualifiers in February 2014.
The wicketkeeper-batsman has played 13 ODIs and 18 T20Is for UAE so far and averages 26.30 and 14.38 respectively.
#6 Munis Ansari
A bowler with a ‘slinga’ action, similar to that of Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga made the headlines when he was called in the Indian cricket team’s net session before the Sri Lanka series in 2005.
Emerged from a bowling talent hunt, Ansari reportedly impressed the likes of Greg Chappell and Harbhajan Singh before fading away to obscurity.
Later he moved on to play for Oman in T20Is and made his debut for them against Afghanistan in 2015. The pacer also played for Oman in the ICC T20 World Cup 2016.
The man who once got the likes of Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen playing for Cricket Club of India XI against the touring England side, is still a regular member of the Oman side, even though his bowling speed isn’t the greatest.
#7 Jeet Raval
The man, who played for Gujarat in the Under-15 and Under-17 levels, was recently picked in New Zealand's squad for the tours of Zimbabwe and South Africa. The southpaw, who is a fan of Sourav Ganguly, was prolific for the Auckland side in the domestic competition this year and based on that he was called to the national side.
Raval also spoke to DNA about his connection with India in an interview, “You know I represented Gujarat at the Under-15 and Under-17 levels. I remember playing with Rahane, who is from Mumbai, and Jadeja, who is from Saurashtra. I also played with Ishant Sharma, Piyush Chawla. Parthiv Patel is a good friend. He inspired me to work hard.
”Surely, he will be the one to watch out for in the future.
#8 Shakti Gauchan
The Nepal all-rounder once dreamt of playing for India as he sharpened his skills in Mumbai and also represented the city’s Under-15 and Under-17 teams.
Though the 32-year-old’s dreams were dashed, yet he later fulfilled his aspirations of playing in the international cricket by appearing for the neighbor country Nepal.
Not only that, Gauchan became the second Nepalese cricketer to score an international century, when he slammed an unbeaten 106 off 103 balls against Italy during the ICC World Cup Qualifying Series in February 2005.
He also played in the 2002 ICC Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand and later made his debut for the senior side in the 2002 ACC Trophy in Singapore.
