India ‘A’ coach Sanjay Bangar said here on Thursday that the outcome of warm-up games may not be important for touring teams, but was relevant for the home team. The team, led by Manoj Tiwary, beat Sri Lanka by 88 runs at the Brabourne Stadium.
“There were a lot of positives, especially the way we got the partnerships. We were playing 11 and they were exercising all their options. That was an added challenge and the way our bowlers responded was terrific.
“All of them bowled to a plan. Dhawal (Kulkarni) picked up wickets with the new as well as old ball. He gave a good account of himself, there was variety in his bowling — slow bouncers, different angles, yorkers.”
Bangar said Rohit Sharma had proved his fitness. “He is a quality player. His match fitness had to be assessed and that was the reason the selectors did not choose him for the first three ODIs. He gave a fantastic account of himself.
“He has been practising really hard over the last 10 days. And today he showed total recovery. He fielded throughout the 50 overs and those are good signs for the Indian team.”
Bangar was also happy with Pandey’s batting effort. “He has been batting pretty well consistently. His State side won several championships last year; the Irani Cup, the Duleep Trophy, the Ranji Trophy, etc. He played a vital part in that. He had a fantastic IPL also. He won the IPL final for KKR.
“This innings can give him a lot of confidence because it came after we were put in to bat and you always expect the CCI wicket to do a bit in the first hour-and-a-half. So, it must have been very satisfying for Manish.”
