I want to ask Dhoni why I was dropped when neither Kohli nor Rohit scored runs: Forgotten India star’s biggest regret

Arguably, the most difficult side to crack into has always been the Indian cricket team, irrespective of the format. And more so challenging, is to consistently keep the spot for the longest time.

Most promising cricketers have vanished despite managing to break into the team, while a lot many never managed to make that distance despite big numbers in domestic cricket. On Monday, as Manoj Tiwary, a first-class behemoth, hung his boots one last time 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, the former India cricketer revealed his biggest regret in his career where he questioned a certain MS Dhoni act when the legendary wicketkeeper was a captain of the Indian team.

Tiwary made his debut for India in 2008 and played 12 ODIs and three T20I matches across seven years and eight different series. In December 2011, he scored his maiden international ton, an unbeaten 104 against West Indies in Chennai. However, he had to wait another seven months to get his next opportunity.

Speaking to News 18 on Monday following his retirement, Tiwary admitted that someday he wants to hear an explanation from then-captain Dhoni on why he was made to wait for 14 consecutive matches despite that century that earned him the Player of the Match award. He further pointed out that he was ignored for the tour of Australia in 2012 in a series were 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,” he said.

Missing out on a Test cap was also one of Tiwary’s biggest regrets. Giving a reminder of his numbers in first-class cricket and his knocks against Australia and England in practice matches, Tiwary said that the Indian selectors preferred Yuvraj Singh despite his efforts in domestic cricket.

‘I was very closed to a Test cap but they picked Yuvraj Singh instead’

“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, also the junior Sports Minister of Bengal, ended his first-class career having scored more than 10,000 runs in 147 matches since his debut in 2004.