Why is Manish Pandey the best candidate for KKR captaincy

Eyebrows were raised when KKR decided not to retain Gambhir going forward. It raised a major question about who should be at the helm of affairs. Also, KKR’s two retentions, Sunil Narine and Andre Russell are not the automatic choices when it comes to captaincy. However, there is one man who has spent quite some time with the men in purple and seems to be the ideal guy to look after the things. He is Manish Pandey! Kolkata Knights Riders have three Right To Match cards up their sleeves and it will be surprising if they don’t use one on Pandey.

Manish Pandey has been an experienced campaigner in IPL. He had stints with Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Pune Warriors India before joining Kolkata Knight Riders in 2014. During his stint at KKR, he has proved to be the backbone of their middle order and has played many match-winning knocks. We all remember his 94 against Kings XI Punjab in 2014 IPL final that helped KKR win their second IPL title. Also, Pandey is regular in India’s ODI and T20 setup at the moment which makes him the front-runner in the race for KKR’s captaincy. One more thing that works in his favour is the right-hander having age on his side. At 28, he is not even halfway through his career and has plenty of cricket left in him. They say, ‘A batsman’s best years are from 28 to 32.’ If it is true, then we could see the best of Manish Pandey in next few years.

Having spent four seasons at the franchise already, Pandey is in the best position to take the leadership role. Captaincy is not something totally new for Manish Pandey. In the recently-concluded tri-series, which featured India ‘A’, South Africa ‘A’ and Afghanistan ‘A’ in the rainbow nation, Pandey led India ‘A’ to a series victory. He led from the front with the bat as well and emerged as the leading run-scorer with 307 runs.

KKR are likely to use the other two Right To Match cards on Robin Uthappa and Kuldeep Yadav. With Russell and Narine already in, KKR have a good solid core around which they can build a side. Gelling has not been a problem for this side in the past. In 2011 and 2014, the team underwent a transformation with a lot of changes taking place in the side after the auction, but KKR managed to make it to the playoffs on both occasions.

Robin Uthappa is another option that they could consider for the leadership role. But one thing that doesn’t work in his favour is not having played international cricket for 2 years. Hence, Pandey has got the edge over Uthappa there. In the last two seasons, KKR have stumbled in the playoffs.

This time they will look to go a couple of steps further and clinch the title. If Pandey can repeat the heroics of 2014, this time as a skipper, then he will certainly be doing the ‘Ami KKR’ fans a world of good. Korbo Lorbo Jeetbo Re!!