Manoj Tiwary: Would like to ask Dhoni why I was dropped after scoring a century

Veteran Bengal batter Manoj Tiwary, who recently announced his retirement from cricket, has questioned why he was dropped from the Indian team despite scoring a century. He lamented that he had the potential to be as good as Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, but was not given the opportunity to do so.

The 38-year-old played 12 ODIs for India in which he scored 287 runs, which included an innings of 104* against West Indies in Chennai. The cricketer, however, was dropped from the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led side despite scoring a hundred.

Opening up on his unfulfilled international career, Tiwary was quoted as saying by news agency PTI:

"I would like to ask Dhoni why was I dropped from the playing XI in 2011 after scoring a century? I had the potential to be a hero just like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli but could not be. Today, when I see many people getting more opportunities on TV, I feel sad.”

Tiwary, who was speaking on the sidelines of his felicitation at the Calcutta Sports Journalists' Club in Kolkata, also expressed concern about youngsters being more interested in the IPL rather than the Ranji Trophy. Recently, he had even shared a post on X, stating that the Ranji Trophy should be 'scrapped' and was fined 20 percent of his match fee for the remark.

Elaborating on his thoughts, the Bengal legend said:

"I can observe that young players have adopted an IPL-centric mindset. Those who don't play IPL often go to Dubai or other places whenever they find some free time. However, this trend is diminishing the significance of the prestigious Ranji Trophy."

"Now, expressing any opinion might lead to a ban. I have already been penalised with a 20 percent reduction in my match fee for just one post," he added.

Recently, BCCI secretary Jay Shah wrote a letter to centrally contracted players, making it very clear that, if fit, they need to play domestic cricket to be considered for national selection.

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Manoj Tiwary’s career stats

Apart from scoring 287 runs in 12 ODIs, Tiwary also picked up five wickets with his leg-spin. In addition, he represented India in three T20Is, scoring 15 runs.

The right-handed batter had a stellar domestic career in which he amassed 10,195 runs in 148 matches at an average of 47.86, with 30 hundreds and 45 fifties.

In List A cricket, Tiwary scored 5,581 runs in 169 matches, averaging 42.28, with six hundreds and 40 half-centuries. He also scored 3,436 runs in 183 T20s.