'Trust me this will be your best innings'- Rohit Sharma's message to Manish Pandey on the latter's marriage

Karnataka scripted history when they became the first team to successfully retain the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy. The southern heavyweight had clinched their maiden title last season where they defeated Maharashtra in the finals. They did an encore of it when they defeated Tamil Nadu for the second time in a final of a tournament courtesy a one-run win in what turned out to be a humdinger of an encounter in Surat.

Karnataka’s captain Manish Pandey once again asserted his dominance as skipper in domestic cricket. The right-handed middle-order batsman played a crucial role with both his bat as well as a captain. Coming into bat after Karnataka had lost two quick wickets in KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal, Pandey needed to steady the ship and play an anchor’s role.

And, he did just that! The right-hander not only addressed Karnataka’s fledging innings but also stroked a few lusty blows during his knock of 45-ball 60 to lead the defending champions towards an eventual match-winning total of 5-180.

For Pandey, it is a dual celebration time. After leading his side to back-to-back white-ball domestic tournament titles (Vijay Hazare Trophy & Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy), the mercurial batsman proceeded to marry actress Ashrita Shetty, hours after the competition.

Naturally, wishes galore for the newly married pair and Rohit Sharma too took to Twitter where he posted a rather cheeky congratulatory wish to Pandey. Sharma wrote, “Wish you both all the happiness in the world. Trust me this will be your best innings @im_manishpandey”.

Manish Pandey will hope that he carries his domestic form into the upcoming West Indies series

This is a very important season for Manish Pandey. As the Karnataka batsman aims to nail down his place in the white-ball set-ups, each and every game that he plays for the national side will be crucial to his fortunes. For all his exploits in domestic cricket, the precocious right-handed batsman has never really set the stage on fire when it comes to international cricket.

However, Pandey did play a good-looking cameo in the last T20I against Bangladesh, he’ll be hoping that he can convert those starts into consistent scores and nail down his spot for next years’ ICC T20 World Cup in Australia next summer. India will take on West Indies in a three-match T20I series starting in Hyderabad from December 06.