'He is a good athlete and moves really well' - Jonty Rhodes hails Manish Pandey’s fielding

The Indian team is currently proud of its fielders with a handful of truly great hand prowling on all parts of the ground. There are a bunch of good catchers, excellent ground fielders and even the bowlers have worked hard on their fielding aspects giving the team an edge apart from batting and bowling.

Players like Ravindra Jadeja, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, and Shikhar Dhawan have made the country proud with their abilities on the field. Jadeja is considered amongst the world’s best fielders, while Manish Pandey gives him a close run in the team for the same title. Pandey’s ability was further supported by Jonty Rhodes recently, who praised the Karnataka captain’s fielding prowess.

Jonty Rhodes is regarded as one of the best fielders of all time

Manish Pandey caught everyone’s eye when it comes to fielding in the third ODI at Bengaluru, as he plucked the ball out of thin air when David Warner tried to hit one over his head and not many were surprised with the astonishing feat from him. He has a reputation as one of the best fielders in the country and he has shown similar feats in the past as well both for Karnataka, in the IPL and for India multiple times. He received plenty of praise from South Africa’s Jonty Rhodes, who is regarded as the best fielder of all-time.

“I have seen Pandey when I was here in November for the Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament. He took a good catch at the boundary. Last night (against Australia), he took a good one-handed catch. He is a good athlete. He moves really well. Who is a good athlete? Someone who moves really well. Take Ravindra Jadeja for example.

I mean he is so fast that he doesn’t need to dive. Even Suresh Raina, for that matter. He is always diving around and always in the thick of things,” Rhodes was quoted as saying by Deccan Herald.

He also mentioned that he has observed the Indian fielders up close during his time with Mumbai Indians in the IPL and cited the example of Jasprit Bumrah. “When he first came to the Mumbai Indians, it was just not his action that was awkward. Even his running and walking were awkward. He was a gangly kid. But his growth and learning in fielding have been exponential. He has put everything he has learnt to practice,” Rhodes further mentioned.

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