Can Manish Pandey do a Rohit Sharma?

Alright! After a long World Cup campaign, we had a new champion emerging for the first time since 1996. The horses have now moved to their respective bilateral assignments and the most awaited bilateral series “THE ASHES” has commenced from today. But….but…but….I am focusing on the Indian Camp which is currently in the West Indies for an assignment of 3 T20Is, 3 ODIs and 2 Tests.

So, all the minds must be craving to ask that what makes me speak about India playing a potentially weaker side than about a high profile series like The Ashes!

The inclusion of Manish Pandey in the limited overs squad can make one speak volumes about it. Manish Pandey shot into the international arena as a 25 year old dashing middle order batsman who possessed immense potential to be the next big thing in Indian cricket and he gave similar signs from his initial performances. He scored commendable 71 runs on his ODI debut against Zimbabwe in 2015. Later in the year 2016, he played the knock of his life so far. An unbeaten 104 against Australia at the SCG (Sydney Cricket Ground). This innings got him the much needed boost as he looked pretty good to go a long way!

He started featuring regularly in India’s blues. He was looked forward as a formidable number 4 batsman ahead of struggling veterans, Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina. But then came a lean patch in 2016 in a series against New Zealand and Pandey was dropped from the team. But he had developed enough faith in the minds of the selectors that he was named in the 15 men squad of the ICC Champions Trophy 2017. Unfortunately, he injured himself in the IPL season of the same year and was out of contention for which could have been his first ICC tournament for India.

Pandey came back fit into the XI but he couldn’t live up to the expectations. A string of poor performances continued. He failed to impress in the Nidahas trophy and the Asia Cup in the year 2018 and was eventually dropped from the side. The emergence of in form Dinesh Karthik, Ambati Rayudu and Kedar Jadhav meant that Pandey had a very slim chance to make it to the World Cup 2019 squad.

Rewind to 2007 and one would find that there was one more player who sta

rted his career in a similar fashion and then rose up in the ranks once he was given an opportunity at the right time. It was the young, chubby 20 year old Rohit Sharma who is currently the vice captain of the Indian side and is considered as one of the best opening batsman India has ever produced!

So, can Manish Pandey do a Rohit Sharma?

Stay tuned to the India tour of West Indies 2019 to watch the mystery unfold😉

#Cricket #PotentialPlayers #IndvsWin #WeSpeakCricket #BCCI #IndiaCricket