Manish Pandey
Sunrisers Hyderabad's Manish Pandey has come under the scanner for his knocks in the first two games of IPL 2021. In the first game against KKR, Pandey scored an unbeaten 61 runs in 44 balls, but it was not enough for Sunrisers to chase down the total of 188 set up by Kolkata Knight Riders.
In the second game against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Wednesday, Pandey scored 38 runs off 39 deliveries before falling prey to Shahbaz Ahmed, who picked a three-fer to deny SRH their first IPL 2021 victory. The Hyderabad-based outfit suffered back-to-back defeats after it failed to hunt the 150-run target at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.
Though Sunrisers Hyderabad have witnessed a poor start in this year's IPL, former India women's captain Anjum Chopra believes Pandey shouldn't take full blame for both the defeats.
"Manish Pandey hasn't performed that bad in the first two games. Fans had expected him to finish both the games for SRH. He didn't succeed in doing that but that doesn't mean you drop him from the Playing XI," said Anjum in interaction with India TV.
The 31-year-old batsman was also dropped from the Annual Player Contracts for Team India when the BCCI announced the list on Thursday. Anjum also opined that the right-hander still has a future with Indian cricket and he shouldn't be sidelined from the national side.
"Manish also didn't deserve to get dropped from the players' contract list announced by the BCCI. The selectors may have thought that the national side doesn't require his services. But I think Manish shouldn't be sidelined so early. It's important to see how the SRH team management sees Manish's role in the side," she further said.
