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The Karnataka Ranji player, who was part of the Mumbai Indians squad for the first edition of the IPL in fact requested for a move to Bangalore. This was in a bid to cement his place in the State’s Ranji side.
His sister Anita Pandey, herself a cricketer who has represented Karnataka says, “Our dad might be in the army but he always wanted Karnataka as our base.” Manish, a product of Kendriya Vidyalaya, has in fact created waves with his aggressive style of batting. Anita says, “He is an exciting batsmen and he is known for his lofted shots.”
Manish, she says picked up a cricket bat from the time he began to walk and their dad is in no small measure responsible for it. Cricket runs in the blood, with Anita who is a medium pace bowler and their father a spin bowler. “Wherever we went we used to set up a cricket pitch and the three of us used to play,” she says. “I can assure you that having bowled to him it is more exciting to watch him bat than bowl to him,” she adds.
Anita, who is a year younger to Manish discontinued her cricket to pursue studies and is a final year BCom student at Jain College. But she says, “Manish is a full time cricketer.
He finished his twelfth and has since gotten into cricket full-time.”
Unlike other 19-year-olds Manish spends most of his time at the KSCA gym and heads straight back home. “He likes watching movies, but otherwise he is very much a home bunny,” she says.
Manish had last spoken to the family on the eve of the final and the words of advice that his younger sister had for him were, “don’t repeat your mistakes and learn from them.”
Manish who lives with his mother and sister is firmly a Bengaluru huduga insists his sister. “My brother speaks flawless Kannada although I can’t and many of his best friends are Kannadigas,” she says.