One of the giants of Indian domestic cricket, Manoj Tiwary called time on his playing career after leading Bengal to a stunning win over Bihar at the Eden Gardens in their final league-stage game of the ongoing Ranji Trophy season.
During his professional career spanning nearly 20 years, Tiwary represented India in 15 white-ball matches and didn’t get a chance to play Test cricket.
Playing his sixth ODI, the right-hander scored a match-winning 104* against West Indies in December 2011 in Chennai. But he was dropped from the team and did not feature in the next 14 games.
In fact, Tiwary played only 12 ODIs in total with the last one coming in July 2015. In the shortest format (T20Is), he got just three chances to prove his worth.
Speaking to News 18 following his retirement, Manoj Tiwary said that someday he wants to hear an explanation from then-captain MS Dhoni on why he was made to wait for 14 consecutive matches despite that century that earned him the Player of the Match award.
The 38-year-old also mentioned that he was overlooked for the 2012 tour of Australia, where some of the top players like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina struggled to score runs.
"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.
Not getting a chance to represent the country in Test cricket was one of Manoj Tiwary's biggest regrets. He claimed that the Indian selectors preferred Yuvraj Singh over him despite his impressive numbers in first-class cricket and his knocks against Australia and England in practice matches.
"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," he added.
In total, Manoj Tiwary played 147 first-class matches, scoring 10,165 runs at an average of 47.94, including 30 hundreds and and 45 half-centuries. He also boasts an impressive record in List A cricket, amassing 5581 runs from 169 games at an average of 42.28 with six centuries and 40 fifties.
