Batting with Kallis brought back memories: Manish

KKR’s new half-centurion pleased to script perfect reunion with old RCB mate

He was a member of India’s World Cup winning Under-19 team back in 2008. He was touted to be the next best thing to come out of Karnataka’s cricketing circles.

By becoming the first Indian to score a century in the IPL, in 2009, Manish Pandey reasserted the strength of the promise he showed. While runs continued to come at a decent flow at the domestic level, the young man struggled to keep up to the radical rise in expectations he faced after the 114-run knock for RCB.

After a quiet period in the IPL, the 24-year-old has once again showed a glimpse of his talent. In the first match of the Pepsi IPL 2014, which was also his first match in the Kolkata Knight Riders jersey, he played a match-winning hand of 64 off 53 balls, against the defending champions, Mumbai Indians.

En route, he built a 131-run partnership with his old RCB teammate, Jacques Kallis. After helping KKR to a 41-run win, Manish spoke to iplt20.com about his IPL career – the bustling start, the lull and the resurgence.

Here are excerpts from his interview:

The purple colour already seems to be lucky for you

It is! It’s a great feeling. The atmosphere of the team was great from day-one. The comfort level that every player has felt is great. That is what makes teams win matches.

You have played with Jacques Kallis before with RCB. How was this partnership for a reunification?

When I went out there to bat, I remembered the old times when I batted with him and I realized nothing had changed. It was exactly the same batting with Jacques again and I could feel that same comfort level. We had a lot of partnerships together with RCB and we know each other’s games well. We kept talking throughout our time together in the middle.

How did he help you throughout your partnership?

The best thing about the partnership was the communication. Right from the very beginning, we decided that we need to stick it out here and build a good partnership because it wasn’t easy to bat on this wicket initially. The new ball was moving a bit – shaping out and in. So, the plan was cut out very clearly and we executed it to a tee.

You have seen highs and lows in your IPL career. You became the first Indian to score an IPL ton and then had a quiet period. How would you explain that lull?

I think I was a bit off the radar. I wasn’t consistent. I was doing well at the domestic level, in first-class cricket, but I couldn’t bring that in the IPL. Although I played a couple of decent knocks for the Pune franchise, I knew that as a top-order batsman, I had to start converting the starts into big scores consistently. I am glad I have started this tournament with a good knock and I hope to be consistent now.

Was it the case of putting yourself under pressure after scoring that century?

It wasn’t the case of putting pressure on myself, to be honest. I think I wasn’t playing the game I did in the first couple of IPL seasons. I believe I should have put in a little bit more effort. People’s expectations had increased from me after that century and I should have tried harder to live up to it. I should have gotten used to it, but I couldn’t. I will try my best to rise up to that standard again and then live up to it this time.

This year’s KKR squad is filled with Indian batsmen like yourself, Uthappa, Bisla, SK Yadav, etc. Do you reckon having a group of young Indian guys can help build healthy competition in the side?

It is definitely a very good thing to have so many Indian guys around. Yes, there is competition, but individually we all have been given our roles in the team and we have all set goals for ourselves. I have mostly opened the innings earlier, but here in KKR, I bat at No.3. So, that is my goal – to be a fine one-down batsman for KKR. So, rather than thinking what the others are doing, I am motivated to concentrate on making myself better in that role. If I can do that, I am sure I can win KKR many matches.

How has your first experience of playing under Gautam Gambhir’s captaincy been?

I spoke to him only a few days after the auction. We were playing against each other at the domestic level and he had a nice chat with me. He made my role in the KKR setup very clear and told me what he expects off me. He set goals for me for this season and encouraged me to achieve them without sacrificing on my own style of playing cricket.