IPL 2021: Dropping Manish Pandey was certainly the selectors' choice, says SRH coach Bayliss
Apr 29, 2021
New Delhi [India], April 29 : Following a heart-wrenching loss against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on Wednesday, SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) head coach Trevor Bayliss admitted dropping Manish Pandey from the playing XI in the previous games was the selectors' choice.
Manish was dropped from the XI after the right-handed batsman failed to get going in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021. However, he played a gutsy knock of 61 runs off 46 balls against CSK on Wednesday.
SRH skipper David Warner had termed it as a "harsh call" when Manish was dropped from the playing XI.
"Yes, that was certainly the selectors' choice. It was felt that that wicket (Chepauk) didn't suit Manish with the ball stopping and spinning."
"But he would come back into the calculations on a wicket like here in Delhi, and he showed tonight what a good player he is. Hopefully, from here on in, if the wickets are going to be similar, we know what sort of damaging player he can be," said Bayliss while replying to a query from ANI.
Meanwhile, Warner on Wednesday played a sluggish knock of 57 off 55 balls which reduced the team's total by 20-30 runs as SRH posted 171/3 in their allotted 20 overs.
"Yeah, look I think, David will be the first to admit that he struggled to hit the gaps. He hit a lot of balls to the fielder today. With a player like David, it doesn't happen a lot," said Bayliss.
"But tonight it did and it hurt a bit. The other guys batted really well and the team effort got us to 171, which wasn't quite enough on this surface. Also, CSK bowled and batted quite well," he added.
SRH has now lost five games and is at the bottom of the points table with only two points in six matches.
"The first four matches have been lost by only 10 runs. Just got down to one or two small drop catches here and there, misfield, few poor or bad overs. Obviously, tonight we got beaten fairly well," said Bayliss
"Important that we don't lose our confidence or patience, stick together and keep working hard. There are some good players in this team. T20 is a typical game, gets on a roll one way or the other. There is no reason why we can't do like what we did last year," he added.
