‘I want to ask Dhoni why I was dropped’: India star expresses his deepest regret
Regardless the format, the Indian cricket team has always been the most tough to break into. The most difficult aspect is maintaining the position for the greatest period of time. Most talented cricketers have departed despite making it onto the squad, and many more have never made it that far while playing in large numbers in domestic cricket. On Monday Manoji Tiwari took retirement after leading Bengal for the one last time towards an outstanding victory over Bihar at the Eden Gardens in their final league-stage match of the ongoing Ranji Trophy season, the former India cricketer revealed one of his greatest regret in his career, where he questioned MS Dhoni’s act when the wicketkeeper-batsman was a captain of Team India.
Tiwary made his India debut in 2008 and appeared in 12 ODIs and three T20Is throughout a seven-year period spanning eight series. In December 2011, he hit his first international century, an undefeated 104 against West Indies in Chennai. But, he had to wait seven months for the next opportunity to play for the team.
Speaking to News 18 on Monday after announcing his retirement, Tiwary said that he would want to know an explanation from former captain Dhoni about why he was forced to wait for 14 consecutive matches even though he scored a century and won Player of the Match. He went on to say that he was overlooked for the 2012 Australia tour, during which elite players including as Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Suresh Raina failed to score.
“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,” he said.
Tiwary expressed one of his greatest regrets which was not earning a Test cap. Tiwary cited his first-class stats and practice matches against Australia and England as reasons why the Indian selectors selected Yuvraj Singh despite his home achievements.
“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.
The 38-year-old, who is also Bengal’s junior Sports Minister, retired from first-class cricket after scoring over 10,000 runs in 147 matches since debuting in 2004.
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