Indian batter gives his verdict about Sanju Samson's deselection from Indian team

Sanju Samson (Source: Twitter)

Manish Pandey the Karnataka batter showed the world what he was made of in 2009 when he became the first Indian to score a century in the Indian T20 League in the second edition which was held in South Africa. Post that he has had a stint in the Indian Team where he has played for some time but was unable to hold on to his spot.

Pandey has played 29 T20I’s and 39 ODI’s. But when he played those games, he was constantly shuffled up and down the order as per the requirements on the team and this meant that his spot in the T20 side was in jeopardy because India found replacements for him in the middle order.

India were looking more towards other people like Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson and Rishabh Pant. Pandey realised that if he was to remain with the Indian Team for the long haul, he would have to bat in the top three which did not materialise at the end. But he also said that Samson had to be given ample opportunities.

No hard feelings that Samson was preferred over me- Manish Pandey

"See obviously, individually I would feel a little sad about it. But I am sure, whatever calls the Indian team was taking or whoever was playing a certain number of games, I was happy for them. Sanju was batting well, so I thought he should have now gotten games and he did. So no hard feelings there. But on a personal front, I would obviously want to play a lot more games and prove myself at the highest level. But unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Maybe see how it goes from here on," S

Samson has also gone through the same vein as he also has been benched in recent times and given very less opportunities to make a name for himself. When it comes to Pandey he has been battling a hard run of form in the Vijay Hazare Trophy for Karnataka and was also released by the Lucknow franchise after featuring last season for them.

"I have been through that situation even with the Indian team. Because there were a lot of times where I have not played a lot of games and I have been sitting out. You actually feel a little sad about it, but it is all in the spirit of the game where the team requires something and then you have to abide by that. So I have been in these kinds of situations before and I think I should not be letting all these things affect me which will eventually affect my game. So I just want to be in the present. If I get an opportunity, I want to play and score well and see how it goes from there, `he added.