'Why Kedar Jadhav and not Manish Pandey?' - Fans question after India lose 2nd ODI against New Zealand
Pandey, who made a comeback to the national side recently, scored an unbeaten fifty in the recent T20I series that India won 0-5.
India suffered a 22-run loss against New Zealand in the second ODI of the three-match series in Auckland on Saturday to squander the series. They lost the first match in Hamilton earlier this year by four wickets even after scoring 347 runs. A let-down by the batting order saw the visitors failing to overhaul the target of 274 despite a late-innings surge from the likes of Ravindra Jadeja (55) and Navdeep Saini (45).
The team’s performance came under the scanner following the loss that saw India finishing second-best in a bilateral ODI series after almost a year (they last lost to Australia 2-3 at home early 2019). While the fans were disappointed over the fact that India left out Mohammed Shami and stuck with Shardul Thakur who proved to be ineffective in the first match, they also felt upset with the ordinary performance of Kedar Jadhav who made only nine off 27 balls at No.6 position.
Kedar Jadhav could not rise to the occasion in Auckland
The 34-year-old batsman, who made a brisk 26 not out in the death overs of the first match, could not rise to the occasion when the team needed him in Auckland. After India lost early wickets while chasing, Jadhav was required to play a stellar knock to lead the chase but his story in the middle was more about playing dot balls.
He could manage one boundary and got dismissed by Tim Southee in the 21st over with the team total yet to reach 100. The likes of Virat Kohli (15) and KL Rahul (4) also fell cheaply in the match to make it difficult for India to keep the series alive.
After Jadhav’s exit, fans came up with posts asking why the in-form Manish Pandey was not played in the game. Pandey, who made a comeback to the national side recently, scored an unbeaten fifty in the recent T20I series that India won 0-5 but has not been picked for any of the ODIs so far.
They even said Pandey is a better batsman and fielder than Jadhav and also offers a good sixth bowling option. Pandey though has never bowled in international cricket so far while Jadhav has claimed 27 wickets in the 50-over format.
Here’s how fans reacted:
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