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Manish Pandey - India's Latest Star?

by Q

An unbeaten 114 in a crunch game, followed up with a 48 in a semi final has caught the imagination of a number of people.

After his unbeaten 114 against the Deccan Chargers, I did some digging on Manish Pandey, which I wrote about here.

As it figures, there's more to it than just that.

His 114* was not only the 1st century by an Indian in the IPL, it was only the 2nd century by an Indian in all Twenty20 cricket. Rohit Sharma is the other one.

What's more is that it is the highest score by an Indian in all Twenty20 cricket.

That is some achievement.

Particularly when its his first ever hundred in all forms of the game at the first class level.

In 5 first class matches, 6 List A games, and 12 Twenty20 matches, before the one against Deccan, Pandey's highest score was 69.

In his last 2 innings of 114* and 48, Pandey scored more runs than he had in his 10 Twenty20 innings before that.

Royal Challengers Bangalore have unearthed a new potential star for India.

Maybe a lot of you in India knew about him before Friday, but the IPL has in all probability provided a launch platform like no other for Manish Pandey.

What do you reckon then - has a new star for India been born?

15 comments:

Viswanathan said...

Only the ad boys can make him a star.

Q said...

Ott, I think he has the face and attitude for the ad guys...

K said...

Yes. I do think a new star has been born. The guy seems to feel no pressure just like my favourite Sehwag. However, he does have something between his ears unlike Sehwag. But the Indian army's loss is Indian cricket's gain since Manish wanted to join the army before the IPL began. Reminds me of a super-talented Abdur Razzaq who was also said to be a Fauji (please correct me if i'm wrong on this).

Anonymous said...

yes if he doesnt lose his focus and looks on longer formats of the game, he is a star born for India

RajaB said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
RajaB said...

He seems to have the potential Q... Plays some good cricketing shots which again was refreshing after one had just done with watching a digger like Dhoni !!

The other side is that we have seen too many potentials in the subcontinent in the last decade or so...

Half of them are either doing or auditioning for one reality TV show or the other...

Let's hope our man doesn't lose focus and end-up in a laughter challenge or something...

adverbin said...

It is too early to say if Pandey will reach the level of a Dravid or the depths of a Somamsunder.
I was not really impressed by his Ranji Trophy performances, but since it was only his debut season ...
I do hope he will reach, if not Dravidian levels, Yuvraj levels? (Cricket I mean, not behaviour).

Prabu said...

Guys, there needs to be some perspective before we hail someone as the next coming of Jesus. I remember the whole blogging community being agog predicting great future for Piyush Chawla based on one ball that he bowled to SRT. Now where is Piyush in the Indian spinners list?

Yes, this kid played some good cricketing shots and handled pressure well. But let's give him a couple of years of hard grind in domestic circuit and then let's see how he comes out of it. At the end of the day, he played in a T20 game with short boundaries and not a long format games where your weaknesses are tested out.

Q said...

K: You're right abt Razzak.

Time will tell us abt Pandey in the bigger leagues.

Q said...

Sam: lets see how he goes.

Q said...

RajaB: haha.. yeah lets hope so man. Though he seems more talented than the ones appearing on the talent shows.

Q said...

Adverbin: could be.. thought what I feel is that this innings could be his coming.. his next Ranjhi season could yet be his best.

Q said...

Prabu: you are absolutely right and the perspective is there, which is why I asked the question "if a new star has been born", rather than state that.

He definitely needs to be tested, but I do believe the IPL has provided a very good launch pad for him.

Gaurav Sethi said...

For Manish Pandey, I really hope that a star has not been born. A player will do for now, thank you.

Hope the ad guys stay away, it's easy to lose the plot early. But he's got that something about him, that tells me he should be ok.

Q said...

Well said NC.