Manoj Tiwary has been a victim of poor-handling; time he gets his due

The India A innings against England was watched with keen interest as it was an opportunity for a number of contenders to march towards a spot in the Test squad. While it was built-up as a Yuvraj Singh-Suresh Raina contest, it was Manoj Tiwary who made a huge impression with a fighting knock of 93 that helped pull his team out of trouble. The race for the No 6 spot in the Indian Test line-up intensifies as the dark horse has trumped the frontrunners in the first bout.

 

For some reason, Tiwary has been stereotyped as a one-day player and never found himself in the reckoning for Test cricket. However, a look at his record in First-class cricket would suggest that he has the mettle to succeed in the longer format. Tuesday’s performance against England promises to change perceptions and may help him break into the squad. 

Here is his overall First-class record (does not include the ongoing India A vs England match):
 

M	Runs	Avg	100s	50s	Highest
57	4335	58.58	16	11	267

To unravel his consistency, we must have a look at his season-wise break-up. We should start with the 2006-07 season, in which he caught the eye. In that remarkable season he amassed 796 runs at a phenomenal average of 99.50, stroking three hundreds along the way. 

Here is his record in each Indian domestic season from that year onwards:

 

Season	M	Runs	Avg	100s	50s	Highest
2006-07	7	796	99.50	3	1	210*
2007-08	9	588	49.00	3	0	203
2008-09	8	518	43.16	3	1	144
2009-10	7	590	73.75	2	4	107
2010-11	8	655	72.77	2	3	233*
2011-12	4	595	148.75	3	0	267

 

The numbers in this table unambiguously reflect his phenomenal consistency. It’s clear that Tiwary hasn’t been given the due he so richly deserves. With such consistency, he should have been in the fray ahead of a Suresh Raina – who boasts of a First-class average of 42.38 –significantly lesser than Tiwary’s numbers. Despite Raina’s technical short-comings and an inferior record, he found himself ahead of Tiwary in the pecking order for Test cricket.

 

Tiwary toured Australia with the Emerging Players side last year and was the third-highest run-scorer in the three-day matches. Earlier this year, he was with the India A side in the West Indies, where just about every Indian batsmen struggled big-time. Cheteshwar Pujara was the only one who was consistent and led the run-charts. Tiwary was the second-highest run-scorer for India A – ahead of Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma. 

 

However, Lady Luck hasn’t favoured Tiwary. Good performances aren’t enough for him to hold on to his spot in the Indian team. He hasn’t enjoyed the kind of support and backing some of the other youngsters have over the years, despite being a run-machine at the domestic level.

 

Let us trace Tiwary’s timeline in international cricket. His first-call up came for the One-Day Internationals (ODIs) in Bangladesh in the aftermath of India’s disastrous campaign at the 2007 World Cup. The then 21-year old was touted as the next big thing in Indian cricket as he was coming off a phenomenal season for Bengal in domestic cricket. However, a day before the first ODI, he injured himself at practice and had to return home heartbroken.

 

In early 2008, Tiwary was summoned to Australia for the Commonwealth Bank tri-series. No sooner had he arrived than he was ushered into the eleven to face the hosts. It was a short stay for him in the middle as Brett Lee sent him packing with a yorker. That was Tiwary’s only ODI for over three years and had to wait until the West Indies tour in 2011 for more opportunities. Since then, he has been treated as a stop-gap option without being given a chance to hold on to his spot in the long run.

 

The Bengal batsman produced a gem of an innings against West Indies at Chennai late last year to record his maiden ODI hundred. It was a knock that rescued India from a muddle and battled the conditions to put up a match-winning total. However, that hundred wasn’t enough for him to cement his place as the team management benched him immediately. He sat out of the tri-series in Australia and the Asia Cup. His next ODI came against Sri Lanka in July – almost nine months after that hundred. He scored a fighting fifty in the next game, but the pattern may repeat as some other players may return to ODI the line-up and usurp his spot. 

 

A player can do nothing more that let his performance speak for himself. Having done that a number of times, it is astonishing that the selectors have ignored Tiwary time and again. Coming back to the game at hand, Yuvraj too has done his chances no harm with a stroke-filled fifty. However, Raina may feel the heat as he couldn’t match the other two contenders. The ball is in the selectors’ court now and come November 5, they would have to make a few interesting choices.

 

(Nishad Pai Vaidya is a Correspondent with CricketCountry and an analyst, anchor and voice-over artist for the site's YouTube Channel. He shot to fame by spotting a wrong replay during IPL4 which resulted in Sachin Tendulkar's dismissal. His insights on the game have come in for high praise from cerebral former cricketers. He has also participated on live TV talk-shows on cricket. Nishad can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/nishad_44)