Manish Pandey has disappointed me the most: Virender Sehwag

Former India opener felt Manish Pandey has been a huge letdown in the One-Day International (ODI) series against Sri Lanka, given that he had an excellent platform in all three matches to get a big score. Pandey scored 26, 37 and 11 in the three ODIs in the ODIs against Sri Lanka - a series which India on 2-1. 

"Here was an opportunity for Manish Pandey and even Hardik Pandya for that matter. Both had scored some 15-20 runs so they disappointed me more. In this three-match series, if anyone got the most benefit, it was Pandey. He played all three matches and got the chance to bat, and on all the three occasions, the situation wasn't challenging either that he had to accelerate," Sehwag said on Cricbuzz.

Since Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar had scored runs in the series, Sehwag reckons those two will be considered ahead of the Karnataka batsman in the future series.

"So, I believe Pandey has disappointed me the most. Perhaps he may no longer get a chance in ODIs for India, and even if he does, it is going to be a long time. Since he lost the opportunity to score in these three matches, he's fallen behind in the pecking order. Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan have scored runs so these two will be considered ahead of him in the middle order."

However, the former India opener defended Prithvi Shaw, who got a couple of 40s but did not get a big score.  "I understand that when a player is in touch, he would want to score more but it sometimes happens that you cannot read the game properly as it happened with Shaw. He probably did not expect the ball to come to him so quickly and rap him on the pads," Sehwag added.

India and Sri Lanka will next clash in a three-match T20 International (T20I) series, starting Sunday (July 25).