Jamshedpur-born batter Saurabh Tiwary announced his retirement from professional cricket on February 12. Tiwary said that he will make his last appearance in Jharkhand's last league stage match of the Ranji Trophy which is scheduled to be played against Rajasthan at his homeground starting February 16.
After a duck against Maharashtra in his first game of the season, he scored an unbeaten 114 against Manipur. He failed to make an impact against Haryana registering scores of 23 and 3. Haryana won the match by an innings and 205 runs.
Tiwary played a pivotal role in India's Under-19 World Cup 2008 triumph under the leadership of Virat Kohli. The southpaw is known for his likeness to a young MS Dhoni who had long hair. The big-hitter made his ODI debut in 2010.
He scored 49 runs from two innings and was never dismissed in ODI cricket. During a short period when Tiwary played three ODIs, India lost none of them. His last appearance with the bat in ODIs was against New Zealand in Bengaluru. He scored 37 not out and shared a match-winning 133-run partnership with centurion Yusuf Pathan in the successful run chase of 317.
"It's a little tough to bid farewell to this journey that I had started before my schooling," Saurabh Tiwary said in a press conference, as quoted by ESPNCricinfo.
"But I'm also sure that this is the right time for this. I feel that if you're not in the national team and IPL, it's better to vacate a spot in the state side for a youngster. Youngsters are getting a lot of chances in our Test team so I'm making this decision.”
"It's not like I've decided this only on the basis of my performances. You can see my record in Ranji and in the last domestic season. It's always asked what I'm going to do next and for now I only know that cricket is the only thing I know so I'm going to be connected to the game," he added, revealing that he even has an offer to join politics.
Tiwary’s IPL career
Tiwary made his Indian Premier League (IPL) debut in 2008. In the first couple of editions, he did not get enough chances. In 2010, he scored 419 runs from 16 matches at an average of 29.92 including three centuries. He played a crucial role in taking MI to their first-ever IPL final. He rejoined MI in 2017. His last IPL appearance was in 2021 where he scored 115 runs from five games including an unbeaten fifty.
Tiwary’s first-class numbers
Tiwary who never made his Test debut has a good first-class record. He has scored 8,030 runs from 115 matches at an average of 47.51. He has 22 centuries and 34 fifties to his name.
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