Manish Pandey – The talent India have grossly underused
If you ask an Indian cricket fan for one problem that they will like to get rid of. The most popular answer will be India’s middle-order problems. It showcased its importance in the 2019 World Cup semi-final. Now take a look at Manish Pandey’s record. He has scored 707 runs in 38 T20Is at an average of 47.13 but has played only 26 ODIs across five years despite India’s struggles to find a middle-order batsman.
Pandey’s ODI career was off to a bang as he smashed 71 on his debut and followed it with an unbeaten 104 during a big run-chase in Australia at No.4 position. Manish’s hundred in SCG would be among the finest ODI knocks from an Indian middle-order batsman while chasing over the past decade. And yet, he isn’t permanent in the Indian line-up.
One ODI appearance in 25 months!
After his sparkling hundred in Australia, Pandey got to bat just one ball during the Zimbabwe tour due to India’s domination. It was followed by a home series against New Zealand where Manish scored only 76 runs in five innings with a best of 28*. He was made to carry drinks during the series against England at the start of 2017 and an injury ruled him out of the Champions Trophy where he would have been restricted to the bench anyways.
Manish returned to the side with scores of 50* and 36 during the series in Sri Lanka but the 5-match series at home against Australia worked against him. Manish scored 83 runs in five innings but had scores of 36*, 33 and 11* while chasing. As a result, between December 2017 and January 2020, Manish Pandey played just one ODI match. It was during the 2018 Asia Cup against Afghanistan after the stand-in skipper Rohit Sharma and his deputy Shikhar Dhawan took rest before the final.
Bradman of Unofficial ODIs?
While Pandey was constantly ignored to be picked in the Indian national team, he turned up to lead the Indian teams in unofficial ODIs. Manish was not only successful with the bat in those matches but also took the teams (India A / India B) he led to titles. Pandey was the Indian skipper in 27 unofficial ODIs where he aggregated 1425 runs at an average of 89.06. He smashed five hundreds and seven fifties during this course.
The Indian teams managed to win as many as 21 of those 27 games and took away all the five series/tournaments they were part of. Even while Pandey got to play in only one ODI across 2018 and 2019, he stood as captain of India A in 11 matches which included three of his match-winning performances. But during the ODIs, India often looked towards Ajinkya Rahane and Dinesh Karthik as short-term covers for middle-order and seem to be moving towards Shreyas Iyer at present.
The solution for India’s troubles?
Going by Manish Pandey’s experience in unofficial ODIs and his T20I record, it can be said that the Karnataka batsman can be a perfect option to fill a spot in the middle-order of the ODI team. India could even have a slot empty for No.5 if they push Virat Kohli to No.4 and have one of Shikhar Dhawan and Shubman Gill in the top three alongside Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul. Even in that case, Manish’s services will be valuable for the team especially in early collapses like the one they saw in 2019 World Cup semis.
