Manish Pandey Will Be Very Upset, He Did Not Capitalize On The Opportunity - Aakash Chopra

Former India batsman Aakash Chopra opined that the path ahead for middle-order batsman Manish Pandey is very tough in the Indian team after he failed to make an impression in the recently concluded ODI series against Sri Lanka. He registered scores of 26, 37, and 11 in the three matches.

Aakash Chopra said Manish Pandey got a good ball in the third ODI and was unfortunate in the way he got run out at the non-striker’s end in the second ODI. But, the commentator believed, Pandey should have gone on to score a big score in the first game with India in command in the chase.

“Manish Pandey will be very upset. Not about the third ODI. In this match, he came back after the rain break, lost concentration and played a bad shot to get out. It was a good ball from Praveen Jayawickrama, who was very good in the third ODI. Akila Dananjaya also bowled well,” Aakash Chopra said in his YouTube video.

“But Manish Pandey would be thinking about the first match. He should have made runs in that game. He could have easily scored a 70-80 but did not capitalize on the opportunity. He unfortunately got run out in the second match and in the last game, he got a good ball. These failures have put him on the backfoot. The path ahead is tough for Manish Pandey,” he added.

Manish Pandey hasn’t produced any noteworthy innings since his hundred against Australia in Sydney in 2016. He has been in and out of the side frequently; scoring runs in domestic cricket has kept him in the fray, but he hasn’t been able to make use of the dispersed opportunities in the past few years.

Manish Pandey has been batting really well: Suryakumar Yadav

Suryakumar Yadav, who bagged the Player of the Series award, was effusive in praise for Pandey. He said that the Karnataka batsman has been in good touch in the practice games and in the nets, but was unfortunate to miss out on recording a significant score.

“Manish Pandey has been batting really well as we saw in the practice games. We played intra-squad matches as well. In the last game, he was batting really well, but he got dismissed in an unfortunate way,” Suryakumar Yadav said.

The 3-match T20I series commences Sunday in Colombo.

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