5 unlucky Indian cricketers who have been part of second-string sides but rarely make it to limited over team otherwise
The Zimbabwean interim coach Makhaya Ntini recently criticised India's decision to send in a second-string side to tour Zimbabwe. Though some of the senior cricketers might have been rested because of the non-stop cricket they have been playing this year, the BCCI maintains that a young squad has been selected to try out potential new talents keeping in mind the important tours ahead.
Trying out youngsters is a laudable effort if their good performances are rewarded with selection in the upcoming tours. But the BCCI have followed a disturbing trend of selecting second-string sides on unimportant tours and not selecting those players again even if they do well.
Here are five unlucky Indian cricketers who have been part of second-string sides but rarely make it to the team otherwise.
Manoj Tiwary
One man who has been extremely unlucky in Indian cricket is Manoj Tiwari. Despite a good debut and good performances whenever he got the opportunity, he was never given the long rope by the selectors. He kept going in and out of the side, being selected only for unimportant matches.
After his unsuccessful debut against Australia at Brisbane in 2008, he was not considered for the next three years until he made his comeback against the West Indies in 2011. After this, he kept getting sporadic chances and was in and out of the team which did not help his cause.
He played in the 5th ODI against West Indies that year. Coming into bat when India had lost two wickets with 1 run on the board, he scored a brilliant unbeaten century and was awarded the Man of the Match for his effort. But he was dropped even after his century and did not get a chance to play for 14 matches after that.
He made a comeback as an all-rounder replacing Rahul Sharma at Colombo the next year and picked up 4 wickets, also scoring 21 runs to go with it. He followed it up with a brilliant 65 in the next game at Pallekele. He was in the squad for the Commonwealth Bank tri-series and the Asia Cup in 2012 but failed to get any chances.
He then was picked for the tours to Bangladesh and the last tour to Zimbabwe. Very few cricketers have been unlucky like him!