Speaking to Cricbuzz, Sehwag said Pandey’s performance, "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."
"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," he added.
The former cricketer, however, defended opener Prithvi Shaw, who got 43 and 49 in two of the three matches but failed to carry on. Sehwag stated about Shaw, "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, like it happened with Shaw. He probably did not expect the ball to come to him so quickly and rap him on the pads.”
India clinched the three-match ODI series by winning the first two matches. They made as many as six changes to the side for the dead rubber on Friday, handing one-day debuts to five players. The visitors’ batting crumbled in the third match and they ended up losing the rain-curtailed game by three wickets.
India and Sri Lanka will now clash in a three-match T20I series, starting on Sunday, July 25 in Colombo.
--By A Cricket Correspondent