The aggressive former Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag made a selfless decision to drop himself from the team for the sake of junior player Manoj Tiwary, a revelation that has come to light years later.
Sehwag, who was once a permanent opener for India, sacrificed his place in December 2011 to give Tiwary an opportunity to play. At the time, Sehwag was at the peak of his career, having scored a magnificent 219 runs against the West Indies earlier that year.
In a recent interview, Manoj Tiwary expressed his deep gratitude, stating that Sehwag has always been his idol and that he would remain thankful to him for the rest of his life. Tiwary shared that there was a strong bond between him, Sehwag, and Gautam Gambhir. Sehwag, noticing that Tiwary was being unfairly shuffled in the batting order and not getting consistent opportunities, decided to make the personal sacrifice to help his junior colleague.
Tiwary recalled that when he finally got a chance to play, he scored a century and was named “Man of the Match.” Virat Kohli, who was also in the same match, missed out on his century by just 20 runs.
Tiwary, a talented cricketer, had the potential for a much bigger career but struggled to gain consistent representation in the Indian team. Over his career, he played only 12 ODIs and 3 T20 matches, a relatively small number in a span of seven years. During this time, he was often in and out of the team, with rumors suggesting that after scoring a century, he would often be dropped from the squad.