Manoj Tiwary symbolises Bengal's new brand of cricket, one built on youth and fearlessness. Within two years of first-class cricket, he has become the most talked-about name outside the Indian team, a refreshing fact in this day and age when it's largely international players and Under-19 stars who get most of the attention. Tiwary has a minimalistic approach towards batting; bowlers are meant to be hit, and the purpose of batting anywhere is to make runs. He goes about doing that in the most aggressive of manners. He has idolised Kevin Pietersen, evident through his mannerism on the field, and favours the front foot more.

After being shunted up and down in his first full season in 2005-06, he got a more certain No. 4 position in the next season and made it his own. He scored three scores of 150-plus and his average of 99.50 took his overall first-class average to 57.50. At 21, he has already led Bengal to a Cooch Behar Trophy triumph, and was also asked to captain the state in the Twenty20 championships, despite the presence of Deep Dasgupta and Sourav Ganguly. An aggressive and passionate Bengal cricketing fraternity has already nicknamed him chota dada (in reference to Ganguly's nickname, dada) and, on the back of India's World Cup debacle, was fast-tracked into the one-day side for the tour to Bangladesh in 2007. He made his one-day debut in Australia in February 2008.
Sidharth Monga February 2008

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Feb 3, 2008 Manoj Tiwary is cleaned up by a scorching yorker © Getty Images

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Nov 6, 2007 Manoj Tiwary bowls his legbreaks © Cricinfo Ltd

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