Sri Lanka vs India 2017: 5 players who are missing from India's previous ODI series in Sri Lanka
We are only a day away from the commencement of the ODI series of India’s Tour of Sri Lanka. Both countries have announced their respective teams and the hosts will be hoping to put up a much better performance, as compared to their sub-par showing in the Test series.
This is India’s first ODI series in Sri Lanka since 2012, when they had thrashed the hosts 4-1.
Only four players from that team still remain - then-skipper MS Dhoni, current skipper Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Ajinkya Rahane.
Let’s take a look at five players from the 2012 series who won’t be featuring in the ODI series beginning day after tomorrow.
#5. Manoj Tiwary
The Bengal native Tiwary scored his maiden ODI century against the West Indies, but did not play a single ODI following that innings despite being in the squad. He was picked in the squad to Tour Sri Lanka in five ODIs.
After being benched for the first three ODIs, Tiwary was selected in the playing XI for the 4th ODI at Colombo, replacing Rahul Sharma. Sri Lanka opted to bat first and scored 251/8 thanks to Upul Tharanga’s 51 assisted by scores of 47 and 42 by Lahiru Thirimanne and Tillakaratne Dilshan respectively.
Tiwary, who replaced a bowler, shone in the department by taking 4 wickets for 61 runs from his 10 overs.
In reply, India lost Gautam Gambhir early but Virender Sehwag and Virat Kohli were scoring steadily and added 52 for the second wicket before the former was dismissed for 34 by Angelo Mathews thanks to a brilliant diving catch by substitute Sachithra Senanayake at short cover. Rohit Sharma was dismissed for 4 and India were now in a spot of bother at 60/3.
At this stage, Manoj Tiwary joined Kohli at the crease and scored a temperamental 21 from 38 balls before being dismissed by Ajantha Mendis. India went on to win the match by 6 wickets thanks to Virat Kohli’s majestic 128 and Suresh Raina’s 58 with the duo adding 146 for the fifth wicket.
Tiwary then put up another commendable in the next match by scoring 65 from 68 deliveries as India reached 294/7. However, he conceded 14 runs off the solitary over he bowled but India won the match by 20 runs thus winning the series.
The Howrah-born neither batted nor bowled in the two T20s against Sri Lanka and New Zealand that followed. He did make the cut in the 2012 World Twenty20 but was not in the playing XI for any of India’s five matches. However, he did take a catch in India’s Super 8 match against Australia.
He was chosen in the ODI team to play England but pulled out due to an injury. Following this, Tiwary was out of the team for almost two years until being chosen in a second-string squad to Tour Bangladesh in three ODIs. However, he scored only two in the only match he played and was subsequently dropped from the team until being selected in another second-string side to play Zimbabwe following India’s disappointing One-Day series defeat to Bangladesh.
Once again, his performances were lackluster as he scored only 34 runs from three ODIs at an average of 11.33.
Since then, Tiwary has been out of the Indian Team and with India having a very solid middle-order with ample replacements, it is highly unlikely that the Bengal captain will return to international cricket.