Went to the hotel room and cried after missing my Test debut: India batsman Manoj Tiwary

Manoj Tiwary was in line to play the first Test of India’s tour of Bangladesh in 2007, but a day ahead of the match, he dislocated his shoulder during fielding drills and had to sit out, delaying his India debut.

Manoj Tiwary, the Bengal batsman, has revealed the extent of disappointment he faced when he missed making his Test debut for India due to an injury. Tiwary was in line to play the first Test of India’s tour of Bangladesh in 2007, but a day ahead of the match, he dislocated his shoulder during fielding drills and had to sit out, delaying his India debut.

“I was in great form, I was in a great rhythm, but I had to miss out because my anterior labrum tear. That day I went to my hotel room and cried,” Tiwary told SportsKeeda during an interview.

Tiwary had a wonderful season for Bengal during the 2006-07 season, scoring 796 runs from just seven matches at a stunning average of 99.5, including three centuries and one fifty. He was the second-highest run-getter that season behind Robin Uthappa (854 runs with four centuries and three fifties). Tiwary eventually made his debut the next year, during the CB Series in Australia. He was bowled for a duck and would have to wait another three years to get his next chance.

“When we went to Australia, most of the middle order was not getting runs. There was enough space in the middle order that I could have fit in along with these guys,” Tiwary said.

Tiwary belongs to a rare group of batsmen who was dropped from the Playing XI after scoring a century in the previous match. After making his India debut, Tiwary scored a match-winning unbeaten 104 against West Indies in December 2011 in Chennai, was subsequently dropped from the team and did not play the next 14 games.

The next time Tiwary would get the opportunity to play for India was after eight months, when India toured Sri Lanka in August of 2012. The batsman scored 21 in the fourth ODI and followed it with a half-century before he was again sidelined for two years. One match later, Tiwary was out of reckoning again and the three ODI series in Zimbabwe in 2015 was his last for India.