'When I was a kid, I used to look up to Rahul Dravid'

A 19-year-old from Karnataka grabbed the headlines in 2009 when he became the first Indian to score a century in the Indian Premier League. That knock helped him in choosing his career path, which was a tough choice between Army and cricket. Manish Pandey has ticked plenty of boxes - Under-19 World Cup winner, IPL winner, Ranji Trophy winner, Man of the Match in an IPL final and now an integral member of the Indian squad in the shorter formats.

The early days as an Army kid

In India, it's no surprise if a kid aspires to play cricket. Pandey had the additional luxury of having his father's backing. "It was my dad's dream. I never thought I'll become a cricketer when I was a kid. Dad was the one who used to bowl, and he would get the other Jawaansto come and help us out. It was a good time there, great learning experiences. As an army kid, the first thing you have in your mind is that you must join the Army. That's the basic idea you have, you get attracted to that which I wanted a lot too. But after playing for state, the dream changed to playing international cricket and to make a name for myself," said the 30-year-old on the latest episode of Spicy Pitch.

Playing alongside his hero

It's a tradition in India to idolise Rahul Dravid or Sachin Tendulkar if you're a budding batsman and Pandey was no different. "When I was a kid, I used to look up to Rahul Dravid. I was always a big fan of his. The way he was disciplined towards his game and life, that was really good."

Pandey played alongside the legend for Karnataka in the Ranji Trophy and also in the IPL at Royal Challengers Bangalore. "When I was playing Under 19, I used to love to watch him bat. He used to stand in the first slip and I was standing in the second slip (while playing for RCB). That feeling was very surreal," said Pandey, cherishing those memorable moments.

IPL hundred

In a crucial encounter against Deccan Chargers in the IPL 2009 in Centurion, Pandey - playing for RCB - made a mockery of the opposition, which had the likes of Ryan Harris, RP Singh and Pragyan Ojha, and went on to compose a ton.

Recalling the build up to that match, Pandey said: "Somebody got injured or we'd lost a couple of games, Anil Kumble was the captain of the team. After the practice session, he comes up and says in Kannada, 'Are you ready'? Something clicked and I said: 'Anil bhai, I'm ready for tomorrow'. And then again after two minutes he turned up and said, 'You might be opening the batting tomorrow'. It was like a small shock to me."

The right-handed batsman didn't disappoint his captain and smashed an unforgettable 114* off just 73 deliveries, and Pandey hasn't looked back since then. "The confidence level, the way I was thinking about the game, all of those little things did change after that hundred. It would have given me immense confidence."

International debut

It took around six years since that famous IPL innings for Pandey to play for India. The middle order batsman recalled fond memories of making his debut for India under MS Dhoni's leadership.

"I can relate to MS [Dhoni] because he has that kind of a mindset which I know I can talk to him freely. I can talk to him about anything. The way he speaks about certain things about the game and even the lifestyle, I relate to it. Sometimes, we have sat and spoken about the Army and the things that we have done. Luckily, he was there in Zimbabwe and he was the captain. It was quite easy for me to go to him. I had also played a couple of IPL games against him. So, I knew him a bit. All in all, he was very helpful."