For Manoj Tiwary, the upcoming season should be the one to resurrect his chequered career, a national selector feels that way. The Bengal middle-order batsman, who has been picked for the Irani Cup and Challengers, has quite a job at hand to be a serious contender for the top level once again.

The last season didn’t go too well for the 24-year-old. Bengal played in the Plate Group of the Ranji Trophy — the second tier where batsmen one need to pile tons of runs to draw the national selectors’ attention. Tiwary was sublime on occasions, but wasn’t consistent. Then came the finger injury that cut short his IPL campaign with Delhi Daredevils. He was picked for the Emerging Players’ Tournament in Australia, but barring a commendable fifty, he didn’t do anything significant. Delhi Daredevils dropped him from their Champions League squad. In fact, he was not a certainty for the Rest of India team. But the selectors, who consider the Bengal batsman a special talent, decided to give him one more chance as Saurashtra run-machine Cheteshwar Pujara is yet to recover from his knee injury.

“We didn’t do him (Tiwary) a favour. He is there because of his talent,” a national selector told The Indian Express, trying to play down the matter. But at the same time, he admitted that this is one chance that Tiwary should capitalise on. “There are players who are scoring tons of runs in domestic cricket. Tiwary has to prove that he is a cut above them. Nobody is questioning his talent. But it’s high time his talent reflects in his performance,” the selector said.

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