Manish Pandey's Omission From The T20I Squad Has Brought A Question Mark Over His International Career, Says Aakash Chopra

Former India opener, Aakash Chopra is concerned about Manish Pandey’s future with the Indian national team after the right-hander was excluded from the T20I squad for the upcoming five-match series against England in Ahmedabad.

Manish Pandey has been amongst the fringe players in the limited-overs team for the past few years and comes into the eleven when a top-order player is rested or injured. He batted in 6 T20I innings last year remaining unbeaten in 5 of them.

He was selected in the eleven over Shreyas Iyer in the first T20I in Australia but then missed the next two matches owing to an elbow injury. With the return of Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant and the addition of Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, and Rahul Tewatia to the short format squad, Pandey and Sanju Samson miss out.

Samson played all the 3 T20Is in Australia; while he batted with alacrity – a strike rate of 141.18 – but had no major score to show. Pandey and Samson will look to produce notable performances in the IPL 2021 to make a comeback to the national side.

Aakash Chopra, in his YouTube video, expressed his worries over Pandey’s and Samson’s future with the national team as other players, for whom he is excited, now have a chance to cement their places in the England series.

“Manish Pandey’s name usually features (in Indian limited-overs teams). This brings a question mark over his (international) career because he anyway doesn’t get many chances in the XI and now you are again looking at Pant and other options,” Aakash Chopra said.

“Two big names which are missing are of Sanju Samson and Manish Pandey. Samson did get his chance with the bat but it did not go well for him. And that’s the problem of T20. It’s very difficult to do well in that format. So Samson has paid the price. He showed glimpses of what he can do but he couldn’t carry on.

“I’m absolutely delighted Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, and Rahul Tweatia have been selected and they are now in the T20 scheme of things,” Aakash Chopra added.

Aakash Chopra backs the decision to rest Bumrah and Shami for the T20Is

Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami are rested from the T20I series against Eoin Morgan’s side. Aakash Chopra explains that while Shami is recovering from the injury he sustained in Australia, Bumrah has played a lot of cricket and there is plenty more to come – with the ongoing Test series, IPL, the tour of England, and the T20 World Cup – and hence, the selectors are being pragmatic about the physical and mental health of the bowlers.

“India has done the workload management well. Bumrah has to play the IPL and then the World Cup. So it’s a long long season ahead. There is a five-Test series in England as well, So you really have to manage the workload. Shami has started to bowl again but he has been rested probably because the T20s are back to back. The turnaround time for 5 T20s is quite less,” the former opener added.

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