"Rohit, Kohli, Raina were not making runs" - Former India batter makes shocking MS Dhoni claim on being dropped from the Indian team

Former batter Manoj Tiwary believes he was sidelined from Team India despite scoring an ODI century when MS Dhoni was at the helm in 2011. Despite being a star performer in the domestic circuit, Tiwary had to wait long for a relatively consistent run in the Indian side.

After debuting in ODIs against Australia in 2008, Tiwary played his next match for India in 2011, following the World Cup at home. After a string of low scores in his first five ODIs, the right-hander finally scored a century in the final game of the home series against the West Indies in Chennai.

Yet, he was dropped for India's next two ODI assignments - the CB series in Australia and the Asia Cup.

Recalling the treatment, Tiwary said on the YouTube channel 'Lallantop' (as quoted by NDTV):

"He (Dhoni) was the captain. The players who were in the team then were Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma. After that the Tour which took place, they were not making runs. And here I was, even after making a century and winning Player of the Match, could not find a place in playing XI."

He added:

"I was dropped for 14 matches, which took place in a space of six months. At that time the dropped player did not get enough practice. I wanted to retire but due to family responsibility, could not."

Tiwary returned to India's ODI side during the 2012 Sri Lanka tour. However, after scoring 21 and 62, the Bengal batter was again left out until 2014.

He finally played an ODI in 2014 and three more in 2015 before being permanently excluded from the squad. Tiwary finished his ODI career with 287 runs at an average of 26.09 and a strike rate of 71.21 in 12 matches.

The now-39-year-old also played three T20Is for India but managed only 15 runs at a strike rate of under 90.

"Team India runs according to the planning of the skipper" - Manoj Tiwary

Tiwary had a stop-start career despite the Chennai century against the West Indies[Credit: Getty]

In the same interview, Manoj Tiwary claimed that the captains have run Indian cricket since the 1980s despite the presence of other key stakeholders.

While his international career was brief, Tiwary was a stalwart in domestic cricket across formats. He played 148 first-class and 169 List-A games, combining for almost 16,000 runs, including 36 centuries.

"Team India runs according to the planning of the skipper. In state teams, things are different but in Team India its all about the captain. If you see, during Kapil Dev's time it was he who ran the show, during Sunil Gavaskar's tenure it was his call, same was during Mohammad Azharuddin's tenure. After that Dada and so on. This will go on unless a strict administrator comes and makes a set rule," Tiwary said.

He added:

"You see Ajit Agarkar (current BCCI chief selector) and you feel he can take strong decisions. He can disagree with the coach. If a player is dropped after scoring a century, obviously I want to know the answer. After century I was praised, but post that I did not have any inkling. At that time, youngsters used to feel afraid, including me. If you ask something, who knows what way it could have been taken. Career is on the line."

Tiwary enjoyed a fairly extensive IPL career from 2008 to 2018, finishing with 1,686 runs at an average of 29.07 and a strike rate of 117.41.