through-a-big-slump (1)

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Cricketers are always a topic of debate and discussion. Fans want their favourite player to perform on the highest level each time. But sometimes we tend to forget that cricketers are also humans who can go through a rough patch in their career. Nothing is permanent in sport. Whether it's Sachin Tendulkar in cricket or Tiger Woods in golf, every player has gone through a slump once in their career.

Currently, Virat Kohli is going through the same patch and many critics have opined that his glory days are over. However, in this article we will look at 5 such cricketers who faced a big slump in their careers but later bounced back with flying colors.

Ashish Nehra 

Nehra was always a captain's bowler due to his unique skill of swinging the ball away from batsmen, especially right-handers. Ashish Nehra played a crucial part in many of India's victories over the years. Unfortunately, he suffered a set of injuries which indeed hampered his form and was neglected by the Indian team for long period.

Nehra was struggling for form and his place was in doubt for the 2011 World Cup. But before the WC, Nehra had an excellent few series and he was eventually selected for World Cup 2011 and rest is history.

Zaheer Khan

Fast bowling in India was an art back then and Zaheer Khan was a master of it. Zaheer had his own ups and downs in his career. He was dropped from the Indian team in 2004–05 due to multiple poor performances. But rather than collapsing under pressure, he rebounded stronger than ever and had Worcestershire's best domestic season.

He yet again secured a place in the Indian team after a series of outstanding performances. Zaheer led India to triumph in the 2011 World Cup and was invaluable in helping India gain top position in Test rankings in 2009.

Marlon Samuels 

Marlon Samuels was a very talented all-rounder for the West Indies side. But Samuels was infamous for his involvement in brawls and unnecessary controversy. He was even banned on 2 occasions for suspected bowling action by ICC. Samuels had a poor run of form before 2014. He was dropped from the West Indies white ball set up. Samuels didn't give up and kept scoring runs in T20 leagues around the world which earned him a call for the 2014 T20 WC. The all-rounder guided his team to their 1st ever T20 World Cup victory back then.

Sourav Ganguly 

Former Indian cricket, captain and now BCCI President, Sourav Ganguly too went through a bad patch in his career. Due to lack of form and runs and infamous controversy with then-coach Greg Chapell, Ganguly was dropped from the Indian team. After the axe, there were widespread protests all over the country. Many former cricketers came out in public and said, “Sourav doesn't deserve this at all”.

After being dropped, Ganguly went back to domestic cricket and scored tons of runs for 2 seasons. He was the leading run-getter in Ranji Trophy. His splendid performance earned him a call back into the Indian Team. After this comeback, he smashed his best score in Test cricket, blasting a blistering 239 against Pakistan and became the highest run-getter in the year 2007.

Brad Hogg

The Australian left-arm wrist-spinner had his own journey in cricket. He debuted in the year 1996 as a young 2nd spinner option for Australia on their Indian tour. Hogg is regarded as the 9th most successful bowler in ODIs. Hogg had a pretty successful spell in international cricket till 2008. But then due to some injuries, he was neglected by the Australian board.

Hogg made a surprise comeback to T20 cricket with the Big Bash League. Once Hogg embarrassed the shortest format of the game, then there was no looking back. Hogg soon become a force to reckon with in T20 Cricket and was playing all major T20 leagues like IPL. He was picked by Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL where he played second fiddle to Sunil Narine.

Hogg's excellent performances in the shortest format weren't ignored and he return to International cricket as a T20 specialist in 2012. He was even called up for the Australia T20 World Cup Squad in 2012 and 2014.