World Cup starts today and it is much awaited by people from all over the world. And our squad of 15 players is now in London to play. But even so, some very talented people do not find a spot in the Indian Cricket team.

And this has been happening for a long time. It’s sad to see such talent go waste. Here is a list of people who never got to play in the World Cup:

Stuart MacGill

MacGill was a good leg spinner who was unlucky to play at the same time as the great Shane Warne. And the Australian side at the time had such good fast bowlers that they never felt the need for an extra spinner in the squad.

Alastair Cook

He made his international debut in 2006, and within 12 years of his playing career, he represented England in 161 Test matches. Cook was a prolific run-getter who amassed 12472 runs at an average of 45.35. The southpaw was always ready to take challenges and played with style. Cook took time to settle down and was not a punisher of the ball, which is perhaps the reason why he never made it to any World Cup.

VVS Laxman

Legendary Indian batsman VVS Laxman was a part of the iconic quartet of Indian Test batting which is often dubbed as the ‘Fab Four’. In a career which saw the stylish Hyderabadi play 134 Tests, he scored 8781 runs at an average of just under 46 and hit 17 centuries including a career-best of 281 against Australia at the Eden Gardens.

Laxmipathy Balaji

Balaji made his debut alongside Irfan Pathan in Australia in 2003-04. And while he showed promise and often could win matches with the new ball, he was always injury prone.

read: KL Rahul performs his best at the warm-up match

Murali Kartik

Murali Kartik was one of the best spinners of his time, along with Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble. But it is widely known that his status as a left-arm spinner did very little for him during Sourav Ganguly's captaincy.