'It was a full-on DDLJ moment' - Manish Pandey recalls childhood memory with his crush

Manish Pandey, the Indian middle-order batsman has become a regular face of the national side in the limited-overs format. He is one of the fittest cricketers in Team India and moreover, he has a massive fan following across the globe. Recently, he revealed one of his fondest memories while growing up as an individual in an army family.

The Army kids have a very different lifestyle in comparison to other people in India. They keep shifting from one place to another according to the posting. The best part is that they meet different families, make new friends. But, they also face some hardships during their journey.

Manish Pandey recalls his childhood memory

The Uttarakhand-born player opened up about one of the memories from his childhood and said that he had a DDLJ moment that didn’t have a happy ending. The 30-year-old cited the fact that he was born into an army family. So, they had to keep shifting from one place to another.

“As an army family, we would have to keep shifting base every year. I loved it — meeting new people, finding new friends, learning from different cultures,” Pandey told Manish Batavia on Cricbuzz’s SpicyPitch.

He recalled one of the instances when the family of his crush came to drop his family at the railway station. At that time, his crush was standing alongside her father, who asked her to stay as she was too young. As per the Indian cricketer, it was full-on DDLJ moment for him that didn’t end on an expected note.

“But I remember one time that we moved when I was an adolescent. We were at the train station, and some army families came to drop us off. The girl I had a crush on was also there with her father. So it was a full-on DDLJ moment! Except that instead of ‘Ja Simran Ja’, her dad held her hand and said, ‘Stay back, you are too young’!” Pandey recalled.

Pandey made his international debut back in 2015 and now he has become a regular face in Team India’s squad. He was all set to play for Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2020 that was suspended by BCCI amid a novel virus outbreak.