New Delhi. There are some faces in the corridors of Indian cricket who are compared with the great players so quickly that their own identity gets hidden behind that comparison. In 2008, when the Indian team won the Under-19 World Cup under the captaincy of Virat Kohli, a batsman from that team caught everyone’s attention. A tall boy from Jharkhand, with shoulder-length hair, strong physique and shots reminiscent of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Name was Saurabh Tiwari. He started being called the ‘next Dhoni’ overnight, but where is that boy today.
The similarities between Saurabh Tiwary and MS Dhoni were not limited to their cities Jamshedpur-Ranchi or their long hair. Saurabh’s way of playing was also very aggressive. In the 2008 Under-19 World Cup, he played well with Virat Kohli in the middle order. In that tournament, he scored runs at an average of around 30, but his short and effective innings played an important role in making India the champion. Seeing his talent, Mumbai Indians made him a part of their team in the very first season of IPL.
Saurabh Tiwari soon moved away from international cricket.
The 2010 IPL season proved to be the ‘golden period’ of Saurabh Tiwari’s career. Batting with Sachin Tendulkar, this young player scored 419 runs in 16 matches. The selectors could not help but be impressed by his power-hitting and ability to hit long sixes against the spinners. In the same year he got a chance to wear the blue jersey of the Indian team.
Entry into Team India and then silence
Saurabh made his ODI debut in October 2010 against Australia in Visakhapatnam. The same long hair was flying on the field and Jharkhand’s second ‘Dhoni’ was visible on the screen. He played only 3 ODI matches in his short international career, in which he remained unbeaten twice and scored a total of 49 runs. The figures were not bad, but the competition in the Indian team of that era was so tough that making a comeback after one or two bad matches or injury was no less than a challenge. Gradually Saurabh started falling out of Team India’s scheme. Comparisons with Dhoni, which was once his strength, have now become the biggest pressure of his career. People were looking for Dhoni’s image in him, whereas Saurabh had to create a distinct identity of his own.
Injuries, weight and IPL ups and downs
A major reason behind Saurabh Tiwari’s disappearance was his fitness and increasing injuries. At one time, he started suffering from shoulder and knee problems, which affected his fielding and running-between-the-wickets. Even in IPL his shine started fading. After moving from Mumbai Indians to Royal Challengers Bangalore, he received a huge bid of Rs 3.5 crore, but he could not do justice to that price. After this, he also went to teams like Delhi Capitals and Rising Pune Supergiants, but the same rhythm of 2010 was never seen again.
The surprising thing is that the player who was forgotten by the world, never accepted defeat in domestic cricket. He scored runs for Jharkhand for years. He scored more than 8000 runs in 115 matches in his first-class career, which included 22 centuries. He added almost 4000 runs in List-A cricket also. If we look at domestic statistics, he appears to be a great player, but at the international level he remained just a ‘flash’.
Where is the ‘next Dhoni’ now?
With time, Saurabh Tiwari changed his look, cut his hair short, but the tag of ‘next Dhoni’ never left him. At the beginning of 2024, at the age of 34, Saurabh announced his retirement from all forms of professional cricket. His last big match was in Ranji Trophy for Jharkhand. Saurabh is currently the secretary of Jharkhand Cricket Association. Saurabh’s story reminds us of those countless stars of Indian cricket, who shone very bright but disappeared somewhere in the dust of time. Today, while his teammate Virat Kohli has become the king of world cricket, Saurabh Tiwari left as an ‘unsung hero’ who started his career in the shadow of Dhoni and left an incomplete journey under the burden of the same comparison. He is not on the field today, but whenever there will be talk of that World Champion batch of 2008 in cricket history, the name of that ‘long haired boy’ from Jharkhand will definitely be taken.
