Manish Pandey fails to justify selection for LSG

It was a brave call from the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) captain-coach duo of KL Rahul and Andy Flower to opt for Manish Pandey at number three. The Bangalorean was mostly discarded or, in better words, relegated to the lower middle-order during his spells in Kolkata and Hyderabad in the IPL.

Despite being a gun fielder, Pandey, over the years, has failed to justify his form as a batter. Be it with the national team or his IPL franchises, he has been incredibly inconsistent as a player of his caliber.

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Lucknow Super Giants show great faith

Despite doing relatively well last season, the fact that the Sunrisers finished rock bottom took all the cream out of his performances. Nonetheless, he managed to impress the LSG hierarchy as they vouched for him in the auction. Lucknow managed to rope Pandey in for ₹4.6 Cr.

There was a big debate before the start of the season as to which combination Lucknow would opt to cometh the tournament. Given how they lined up, the choice for an Indian specialist batter essentially boiled down to the Bangalorean and Manan Vohra. There was little possibility of both of them featuring in the starting line-up simultaneously given that they had to go for an Indian all-rounder to add to their bowling options.

Pandey got the nod.

More importantly, the franchise showed an incredible amount of confidence in the batter as they opted him for the number three slot.

This time around, he had little to complain about. While he can be absolved of his inconsistencies in previous seasons partially because of his batting position, he could not have any scope for that with the backing he received this term.

Pandey yet to deliver

In three games so far, the right-hander has only compiled 26 runs with a best of eleven. Not in a single outing has he managed to score at a hundred-plus strike rate. While the batters around him have had at least one big performance to their name, Manish has barely turned up in any match so far.

In their recent encounter against his former franchise, Pandey had an excellent opportunity to consolidate with his captain after Lucknow lost two early wickets in the powerplay. However, in no less than ten deliveries from the last wicket, his ill-fated hoic found the mid-on fielder to pummel them to greater misery.

With him looking entirely out of sorts, his days at number three are surely going to be numbered.