In a shocking development, Karnataka have dropped one of their most senior players Manish Pandey from the One-Day announced for the upcoming Vijay Hazare Trophy. The indications are that the team is moving on from old players and the need is for the young blood to come in. Moreover, Pandey’s exit seems to be purely on form as well having mustered only 117 runs in five innings in the recently concluded Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
Karnataka failed to make it to the knockouts of the T20 tournament as well as they finished fourth in the eight-team group losing out to Baroda and Saurashtra. Comeback seems to be extremely tough for Pandey now as the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) has hinted at moving from the old players. In fact, Manish Pandey is unlikely to be picked for the second phase of the Ranji Trophy as well.
He has scored only a solitary fifty in six innings with Karnataka struggling to make it to the knockouts. “We as an association have realised that we need to move on from the players of old and bring in new blood. We cannot live in past glory,”KSCA selection committee chair J Abhiram said. “When we won the double-treble, it was a young Karnataka team. We’re banking on youth once again to get us there,” he added.
If indeed Manish Pandey has played his last game, it would be a sad end to his career as his real potential was never on show at the international level. For the unversed, he is the first-ever Indian centurion in the Indian Premier League (IPL) having smashed 114 runs off 73 deliveries against Deccan Chargers while playing for Royal Challengers Bengaluru back in 2009.
He made his India debut in 2015 and could only feature in 29 ODIs and 39 T20Is until 2021 when he last donned the blue jersey for the country. Pandey featured in 118 matches in first-class cricket amassing 7973 runs at an average of 50.78 with 25 centuries and 32 fifties. Even in List A cricket, the veteran played 192 matches scoring 6310 runs at an average of 45.39 with 10 tons and 39 half-centuries to his name. However, Manish Pandey will be in action in the IPL for Kolkata Knight Riders who picked him for his base price of Rs 75 lakh in the mega auction last month.
Karnataka squad for Vijay Hazare Trophy: Mayank Agarwal (capt), Shreyas Gopal (vice-capt), S Nikin Jose, KV Aneesh, R Smaran, KL Shrijith, Abhinav Manohar, Hardik Raj, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Vasuki Koushik, Vidyadhar Patil, Kishan Bedare, Abhilash Shetty, Manoj Bhandage, Pravin Dubey, Luvnith Sisodia
