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Manoj Tiwary has revealed that Virender Sehwag backed him in the Indian cricket team, even sacrificing his batting spot, while MS Dhoni didn’t support him.
Manoj Tiwary played 12 ODIs for India (Picture credit: AFP)
Former India cricketer Manoj Tiwary has said that Virender Sehwag was one of the individuals who backed him within the Indian cricket team, adding that the latter once sacrificed his batting position in the playing XI to ensure that Tiwary found a spot in the XI.
Nicknamed ‘Chhota Dada‘, Tiwary bore the burden of massive expectations, but his international career stretched to just 12 ODIs and three T20Is.
Tiwary’s first five innings yielded scores of 2, 2, 22, 11 and 24, as he struggled to find his footing.
“I have got backing from Virender Sehwag. I have always said that Viru paaji is one of the individuals who has really backed me. In fact, the century that has come in the West Indies game where I got Man of the Match,” Tiwary said while speaking to CricTracker.
“He (Sehwag) is the one who sacrificed his place and he took rest before the game. And everyone knows that in that series, where Sehwag scored a double-hundred. So he would have loved to continue and score more runs. But he’s such a good human being that he was observing my career in the Indian team for so many years,” Tiwary added.
“And I felt that when he got the opportunity to rest himself and make a place for me in the playing 11 and not only make a part of the Playing XI, but also to give me my batting position, which was at number four,” Tiwary added.
The ex-India batter noted that while multiple seniors, including Sehwag, backed his potential, former skipper MS Dhoni wasn’t one of them.
Tiwary has expressed his disappointment with Dhoni over the years for not providing him sufficient chances.
“And Sachin [Tendulkar] Paji as well, Yuvraj Singh as well, Harbhajan Singh as well. A lot of seniors have backed me during that time, but they have limited control over the decision-making,” Tiwary said.
“At that time, the only decision-maker was MS Dhoni and also the foreign coaches who came up. They just go with the captain because nobody wants to go to war with the Indian captain, because their jobs are on the line,” Tiwary added.
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