India won the three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka by 2-1. The hosts managed to pull off a win in the third and final game. For India, a lot of players impressed with their performances in the middle but one cricketer who was failed to impress by a huge margin according to many was Manish Pandey. Even former Indian opener, Virender Sehwag has pointed out that the Karnataka batsman couldn’t grab a golden chance to seal his place in the team.
Manish Pandey batted at four in all the three ODIs and had come in to bat in a situation from where he could’ve easily helped India win the game or put into the strong position. However, he only managed to score 74 runs in three matches and failed to impress teh selectors.
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The pressure was clearly on Manish with so many players fighting for a spot. Also, with Suryakumar Yadav consistently performing and also winning the Player of the Series award, he might be preferred going ahead for a middle-order slot in the ODIs.
Sehwag was also disappointed with Hardik Pandya who couldn’t do much with his all-around abilities throughout the series. But he stressed Manish’s failures more while also stating that he might’ve played his last ODI for India.
Talking about the same during a chat on Cricbuzz, Virender Sehwag said, “Here was an opportunity for Manish Pandey and even Hardik Pandya for that matter. Both had scored some 15-20 runs so they disappointed me more. In this three-match series, if anyone got the most benefit, it was Pandey. He played all three matches and got the chance to bat, and on all the three occasions, the situation wasn’t challenging either that he had to accelerate.”
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He further added, “So, I believe Pandey has disappointed me the most. Perhaps he may no longer get a chance in ODIs for India, and even if he does, it is going to be a long time. Since he lost the opportunity to score in these three matches, he’s fallen behind in the pecking order. Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan have scored runs so these two will be considered ahead of him in the middle order.”
