Pandey's major strength is how well he bats in a pressure situation in the FC format. He's done it several times in the Ranji Trophy - the most significant knock being the Ranji Final in 2010 of course. Sometimes, he might not look very pretty, but he manages to grind it out on tracks where most of his teammates and the opposition fail to score runs. He also plays for Karnataka, who make all their pitches seamer friendly because of their bowling attack of Vinay, Mithun and Aravind, which makes his average even more impressive.
He needs to work a bit on his offside play though. His judgement on when to play the cut shot is lacking at times, and he sometimes tries the dab to third man way too often on a slow pitch. Also think his defence to the left arm spinner is quite suspect. And, I believe he did get out to left arm spinners most of the time this season. However, considering the fact that after his first season he averaged mid-20s, and he's managed to raise that to 52(after that IPL 100, that seems to have given him a new cricketing life one could say), I do believe Pandey has a lot of potential. He seems to have a lot of time to play his shots when he's in the zone/in form. Also one of the best fielders in India. Starting to come together this IPL as well playing the anchor role to Ryder's aggressor role for Pune.
At this stage, with all the batting talent, it's hard to say if Pandey will ever play for India, but the talent is there, and would definitely mark him as the dark horse/underdog in this group of players. Needs more India A tours abroad to really judge if he's got that special something about him. I do think Pandey would be a good batsman in Australia and South Africa, but would struggle in England at this stage of his career, but he's only 21.
) unlucky to miss out,IMO.
