Suryakumar Yadav defends Manish Pandey’s selection in India’s playing XI despite poor form

Indian batsman Manish Pandey has been in and out of the ODI team for quite a few years. There is no doubt about his batting prowess but the Karnataka lad has failed to impress in the last five innings in ODI cricket.

In the recently-concluded series against Sri Lanka, Pandey once again got starts in every game but he wasn’t able to fire on and score big. He scored 26, 37, and 11 runs respectively in Sri Lanka ODIs.

Before the third ODI in Colombo, India handed over five debut caps and made a total of six changes, raising questions on why Pandey wasn’t dropped from the playing XI despite his form.

🎥 🎥: That moment when the 5⃣ ODI debutants received their #TeamIndia cap!👏 👏 #SLvIND@IamSanjuSamson | @NitishRana_27 | @rdchahar1 | @Sakariya55 | @gowthamyadav88 pic.twitter.com/1GXkO13x5N

— BCCI (@BCCI) July 23, 2021

Reacting to the same, Suryakumar Yadav said: “That was completely the team management’s call, I can’t get into that decision. But yes, he’s been batting really well as we saw in the practice games, we played intra-squad games also.”

Yadav also mentioned that Pandey’s unfortunate run-out in the second ODI might have prompted the team management to give another chance to him.

“And last game, you all must have seen it it was an unfortunate dismissal, he was batting really well at that time as well. So that must have been the reason but as I said, this isn’t my call,” Yadav said while defending Pandey’s dismal show with the bat.

Meanwhile, it looks unlikely that Pandey will get any more chance on the remaining tour. Youngsters like Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Sanju Samson and Nitish Rana are waiting in the wings to capture the middle-order spots and Pandey hasn’t fired in T20Is of late either.

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July 24, 2021 at 05:57PM