‘I understand, they wanted extra money’: Manish Pandey opens up on LSG exit, says ‘they wanted to release me’

Ahead of IPL 2023 mini-auction, which is scheduled to be held in Kochi on December 23, Lucknow Super Giants released seven players from their squad. The list had some notable omissions, which included the likes of Windies powerhouse Jason Holder and Evin Lewis. Manish Pandey was also found his name in the list of released players and the star India batter opened on his release.

In a recent interview to Sportskeeda, Pandey said there were no prior communication about the same between him and the franchise, but is not surprised by their decision.

“No, I never got a call. I just got to know about it on the day the list was announced. There was no real communication, but yeah that’s alright. As players, you have to be ready because you are not playing a lot of games. I understand from LSG’s point of view that they wanted to release me and get some extra money in the kitty for some other players or whatever the plan is,” he said.

Also Read | Sanju Samson was batting well, I thought he should've played in my place: India batter

Pandey also confirmed that no other franchise have approached him after the release. “I am not in touch with any of the other teams as of now. I am just looking to perform well in these games and let’s see where destiny takes me,” he added.

Pandey featured in six matches for the new franchise, in which he could only muster 88 runs at a strike-rate of 110.

The team making their debut in the cash rich league had finished third on the points table after the round-robin stage, securing nine wins from 14 matches.

Also Read | ‘Change the word to coward’: Langer lambasts Australia players for ‘leaking’ information

They met Royal Challengers Bangalore in the play-offs and lost the high-scoring contest by 14 runs. Chasing 208 against Bangalore, KL Rahul and Co. could mange 193/6 before running out of overs.

In an interesting turn of events, Lucknow released four overseas talent and kept wicketkeeper-batter Quinton de Kock, star all-rounder Marcus Stoinis, Kyle Mayers, and England quick Mark Wood.

They will head into the auction with a purse value of ₹23.35 crore and have four overseas slot remaining.