IPL 2018: At the halfway stage, rating the three Indians who cost over Rs. 10 crores

#2 Manish Pandey

Manish Pandey, the Karnataka batsman has been a mainstay in the Indian T20 team. He has been in and out of the ODI team and is fighting for the no.4 spot in the team. Pandey, who was a mainstay in the Kolkata Knight Riders team in the previous seasons, was released by the franchise ahead of the auction.

He has been impressive in T20s both in internationals and in the IPL. In the IPL he has played in 111 matches in which he has scored 2373 runs at an average of 28.25 and a strike rate of 119.60.

In the 8 matches that he has played so far in the ongoing season, he has scored 158 runs at an average of 26.33 and a strike rate of 112.85. He has scored 2 fifties in the season which means he has scored close to 50 runs in the rest of the matches. Although he has failed to deliver with the bat, he has been excellent in the field.

With Shikhar Dhawan and Alex Hales opening the batting for Hyderabad, Pandey will be batting at his usual no. 4 position. Being one of the costliest players bought in the auction this year, Pandey has a big responsibility on his shoulders and must be looking forward to playing long innings in the upcoming matches.

Rating: 6/10