Manish Pandey must be a worried man. He has been a prolific scorer in domestic cricket in past several seasons. He come up with some great knocks in previous seasons of IPL to knock on the door. When he got an opportunity, he scored a match-winning and face-saving century against Australia in Australia. Though he was ignored for a long time but he cashed upon the limited opportunities to make a mark.
However, in the recently concluded 5-match one-day cricket series, he had a great opportunity to cement his place in the team. Suresh Raina was down with flu and that ensured a place for Pandey in the team in all 5 matches. May be Pandey knew that being a specialist batsman, he may not be preferred over Raina when Raina recovered from his illness. Probably he wanted to do something extraordinary to remain in the team. The truth past those 'may be' and 'probably' is that Pandey had a pretty poor series. Batting at No.5 is not easy but more than the scores, it was his shot selections that would be questioned. Compared to him, Kedar Jadhav came up with some good knocks and also played a good part with the ball. The ability to score quickly coupled with his part-time bowling and wicket-keeping skills give Jadhav a much better chance.
India has not been playing too many ODIs and since Pandey is being considered only for ODIs, he would not get to play too many matches. In the next series, when KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar make a come back and if Raina is retained, the structure of the team would be completely different. Yuvraj Singh has also been playing well in the domestic cricket and may make a comeback. That would make it even more difficult for Pandey to find a place.
It is worth investing in a team that is likely to play in the 2019 World Cup. Some cricketers may be too old, unfit or unsuitable for the conditions in UK. That must be kept in mind. India should identify suitable talent and give them a good run.
Hopefully, Pandey is in the scheme of things. If he is, someone should tell him that he would get X number of chances. Past captains have done that with players and it has boosted their confidence. Pandey is a match-winner and some patience is required - both by him and by the 5 wise men of Indian cricket. He should not be allowed to fade away.
