MANISH PANDEY

Manish Pandey has been a batting mainstay for the SRH team ever since they bought him from Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2018 auction for INR 11 cr and continued to retain him at that price and more for the past two seasons.

Pandey, meanwhile, has also carved out a space for himself in the Indian limited-overs side and SRH expected him to play a huge role in the middle order in IPL 2020. He did so by making 425 runs in 16 matches at an average of 32.69 with 3 half-centuries and the best score of 83*.

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However, his strike-rate of 127.62 is not indicative of the fact that Pandey’s anchoring role in the middle of the order and his inability to hit big shots on a consistent basis, put undue pressure on the likes of Garg, Abhishek, and Samad in the lower half and then Williamson as well, when he was included in the XI.

Pandey was happy to anchor one end and let others do the heavy-hitting, but it didn’t help SRH’s cause in chasing down big totals like the one against DC in the second qualifier. Though his numbers look impressive, many could say Pandey didn’t have the impact on SRH’s IPL 2020 journey, as someone of his price tag should have.