Indian cricketer Manoj Tiwary, often known as ‘Chota Dada’ in Bengal, spoke about his exclusion from the Indian team’s playing XI despite scoring a century, in an exclusive video interview with the FanCode App.

“I never thought that after scoring a 100 for my country, getting a Man of the Match Award, I will not find a place in the playing XI for the next 14 games. But I also do respect the fact that the captain and the coach or the management had some other ideas as well because we as players have to respect whatever they were thinking at that point of time, maybe they thought otherwise.

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“I never got the opportunity, or say courage, at that point of time to go and ask Mahi, our captain during that time, because we respect our seniors so much that we tend to hold ourselves back on questioning a few things. So, I haven’t questioned him yet,” Tiwary said.

Tiwari disclosed that he did want to ask about his national team exclusion from MS Dhoni during his stint with the Rising Pune Supergiant but could not do so simply because of the intensity of a tournament like IPL.

“I’ve obviously thought about asking him in the future,” Tiwary added.

Tiwary recently led Bengal to the finals of the Ranji Trophy and scored his maiden triple hundred in first-class cricket. The 34-year-old also talked about that knock in this interview.

Meanwhile, Tiwary picked Shreyas Iyer and Prithvi Shaw as the next big superstars of Indian cricket.

“Shreyas Iyer should be persisted with even if he doesn’t do well in a few games. Along with him, I see Prithvi Shaw as well. If he keeps his head cool and if he gets more disciplined, I’m sure he will go a long way,” he said.