Manoj Tiwary, a behemoth of Indian domestic cricket, retired yesterday (February 20) after amassing 10,195 first-class runs but with regrets of an unfulfilled international career.
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Tiwary played 12 ODIs for India across seven years, scoring 287 runs at an average of 26.09. In December 2011, he made 104 not out against the West Indies, fighting the Chennai humidity until the conditions forced him to retire hurt. He won the Player of the Match award for his performance but contrary to a rise in his career, he spent the next few months waiting for his turn instead.
Though he was picked in the squad for the CB Series in Australia in 2012 in February, Tiwary found himself on the bench instead as the team picked a middle-order comprising Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina.
While Kohli and Raina had proven themselves and also won the World Cup in 2011, Rohit had been unable to leave a mark till then. From his debut in 2007 to the end of 2011, Rohit played 72 games and averaged 34.80 with two hundreds, against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, but the team management persisted with him in Australia over recent centurion Tiwary.
Rohit only mustered 79 runs in five innings in the 2012/13 CB Series and went on to make 72 in two innings in the Asia Cup that followed, where Tiwary did not get a game yet again. Neither did Tiwary feature in the first three ODIs against Sri Lanka in July when Rohit was in the XI, making 5, 0, 0. It was only in late July, seven months and 14 games since his ODI ton, that Tiwary finally got another chance again.
Not being picked destroyed his confidence, admitted Tiwary while speaking to News18 Bangla: “The fact is that I was ignored after getting the Man of the Match award for scoring a hundred. I was ignored for 14 straight matches. When self-confidence is at its peak and someone destroys that, then that player is finished. Confidence is everything for a player, in any profession. Who killed that confidence?”
Tiwary said he wanted to ask MS Dhoni, who led India back then, about why he was not picked: “MS Dhoni was the captain. Suppose I get the opportunity to ask the question. In that case, I will ask him why I was dropped from the team after scoring the century, especially in that tour of Australia where nobody was scoring runs – Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina. I have nothing to lose now.”
The next time Tiwary played an ODI, he made 21 and 65 against Sri Lanka. His next 50-over game for India came two years later.
Tiwary disclosed another incident of preferential treatment, of him being left out in favour of Yuvraj Singh in the Test team against England and Australia in 2012/13, at a point when Tiwary averaged 59.55 after 65 first-class games. He even made a century for India A against the Australians and notched 93 against England but did not make the squad.
Yuvraj, on the other hand, was unable to translate his ODI form into Test cricket and did not play after 2012. “When I had completed playing 65 first-class matches, my batting average was around 65 [59.55]. The Australia team had toured India then, and I had scored 130 in Chennai in a friendly game, then I scored 93 against England in a friendly game. I was very close, but they picked Yuvraj Singh instead.”
Tiwary, who had been in line to make his Test debut during India’s tour of Bangladesh in 2007, dislocated his shoulder a day before the game and could never play for India in the format.
