Manoj Tiwary could have been one of the greatest sports stories in India. Alas, he retires from cricket having underachieved massively with just 15 international matches to his name. Tiwary played his last cricket match, a Ranji Trophy game against Bihar at home ground Eden Gardens for Bengal. As he leaves the field, he talks about his regrets, one of them if not playing any Test match for India.
But Tiwary also regrets not having a long white-ball career with India either. He does not blame his captain at that time who was MS Dhoni. Tiwary, however, says he will certainly ask questions to Dhoni whenever he meets him the next time on why he was dropped despite no fault of his own.
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Tiwary had scored his first ODI hundred vs West Indies in December 2011 but had to wait for seven months before getting another game to represent the country. Tiwary missed 14 straight matches for India despite his hundred and was even ignored for Australia tour in 2012 while Virat Kohli, Suresh Rain who were struggling for runs got picked.
Thank you Calcutta Sports Journalists’ Club for the wonderful farewell felicitation. Your constant support throughout my career had been a blessing. My sincere gratitude! __#GoodByeCricket #CSJC pic.twitter.com/eLYMZGkNkq — MANOJ TIWARY (@tiwarymanoj) February 19, 2024
“I want to hear from him whenever I get the opportunity. I will definitely ask this question. I would like to ask Dhoni why I was dropped from the team after scoring the century, especially in that tour of Australia where nobody was scoring runs, neither was Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma or Suresh Raina. I have nothing to lose now,” Tiwary said.
Tiwary could not make his Test debut. The batsman played 12 ODIs, scoring 287 runs with one hundred and fifty each to his name. He also featured in 3 T20Is, but scored just 15 runs. Tiwary played 98 IPL matches as well and accumulated 1695 runs. But he could not make his Test debut, a regret with which he has to live his life after retiring from the sport. He also questions why he was not picked despite averaging 65 in first-class games.
“When I had completed playing 65 first-class matches, my batting average was around 65. The Australia team had toured India then, and I had scored 130 in a friendly game, then I scored 93 against England in a friendly game. I was very close, but they picked Yuvraj Singh instead. So Test cap and the fact 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, it tends to kill that player,” Tiwary said.