With a remarkable advantage of high capacity, manganese sulfides have been considered as promising anode materials for lithium storage. However, they suffer from low electrical conductivity and severe volume variation during charge/discharge process, leading to electrode pulverization and rapid capacity decay. To address these challenges, herein, a three-dimensional (3D) urchin-like composite structure assembled by MnS nanorods encapsulated in N-doped carbon tubes (MnS@ NC) has been rationally designed. When evaluated as anode for lithium-ion battery, the MnS@ NC composites displayed high reversible capacity (885 mAh g(-1) after 400 cycles at 400 mA g(-1)) and outstanding rate performance (624, 505, 404 and 306 mAh g(-1) at current densities of 0.8, 1.6, 3.2 and 6.4 A g(-1), respectively). The remarkable electrochemical performance can be ascribed to the unique 3D urchin-like structure and the protection of N-doped carbon tubes, which not only effectively maintain the structural integrity of the electrode, but also improve the electrical conductivity of active material and buffer the volume variation during charge/discharge process.