Manoj Tiwary

Manoj Tiwary is not the most fortunate man in Indian cricket. An aggressive batsman from Bengal, he impressed everybody with 796 runs at 99.50 in the 2006-07 Ranji Trophy, in the process breaking Bengal records and forcing his way into the India touring party for Bangladesh. On match eve in Mirpur - and everybody knew he was going to debut - he injured his shoulder severely during fielding practice. When the debut finally arrived in early 2008, he was jetlagged and in Brisbane, completely out of league against a searing Brett Lee. He had to wait for more than three years for his next international match, and was asked to open the innings because he was replacing an underperforming opener in a second-string side. Another failure followed.

In his formative years Tiwary idolised Kevin Pietersen. In his first three seasons in domestic cricket, his love for the Pietersen style of batting showed not only in his preference of the front foot and general aggression, but also in how he would keep pulling up his shirt sleeve. Having courted a mix of hard luck and the rise in standard of cricket at international level, he has cut down on the flamboyance and has strived for a better all-round game. The Bengal cricketing fraternity has nicknamed him chhota dada (in reference to Sourav Ganguly's nickname, dada), and passionately awaits the kind of comeback Ganguly made from six years of wilderness after his debut, incidentally in Brisbane. He was handed another chance to stake his claim for a permanent place in the national side during India's injury-ridden 2011 tour of England, when he was called up to replace Rohit Sharma in the ODI squad. He made his maiden ODI century against West Indies in Chennai later that year, but was mysteriously benched for months. After a long wait, he got his chance again in the ODIs in Sri Lanka and was named in the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 squad. But his injury woes returned to haunt him over the next two domestic seasons and he returned for the 2013-14 Vijay Hazare Trophy after an eight-month layoff. He was recalled to the one-day squad for the tour of Bangladesh in June 2014.
Sidharth Monga