'You Can't Penalize Him For Just One Bad Shot In A Game' : Aakash Chopra Not In Favour Of Dropping Manish Pandey For The Second ODI

Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra weighed in on Manish Pandey’s chances for the second ODI against Sri Lanka in Colombo. Manish Pandey played his first ODI since February 2020; however, he could not impress fully. Even though Aakash Chopra believes the right-handed batsman threw his chance away, he refused to drop him for the second game.

Manish Pandey batted at number four in the first ODI and made a handy 26 runs; however, the 31-year old had the opportunity to finish the game and failed to do it. He had already been under the scanner for failing to reach his potential in international cricket and IPL and throwing his wicket away did not help it either. Pandey’s 40-ball knock contained one four and a six, adding 72 runs with Shikhar Dhawan.

But India had little problems in chasing 263 in 50 overs as they did so with 80 balls and seven wickets to spare. Prithvi Shaw took Sri Lanka’s bowling unit to the cleaners before departing for 43 off 24 balls. On the other hand, Shikhar Dhawan stayed unbeaten at 86 off 95 balls, while Suryakumar Yadav scored an entertaining 31 on his ODI debut.

You can’t penalize him for just one bad shot in a game: Aakash Chopra

Aakash Chopra reckons that Manish Pandey had the opportunity to finish the game off in the first ODI; however, he threw that chance away. But the 43-year old believes India should not penalize the right-handed batsman for playing a silly shot. Thus, he feels India should stick with the same side for the second ODI.

“Manish Pandey could have finished the game off. He just threw it away in the end. But you can’t penalize him for just one bad shot in a game that got over with 15 overs to spare. So, no changes for Team India,” Aakash told ESPN Cricinfo.

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