Kolkata Knight Riders gave Manish Pandey a match against SunRisers Hyderabad on Sunday, May 3, making him only the third player after Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma to feature in at least one match in each of the 19 seasons of the Indian Premier League. The 36-year-old replaced Ramandeep Singh in the KKR XI for their ninth match of the season after being bought for Rs 75 crore in the auction and spending the initial part of the campaign on the bench, including through a spell in the lean side.
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Pandey was picked ahead of younger players like Tejasvi Dahiya and Sarthak Ranjan, with skipper Ajinkya Rahane opting for experience after Ramandeep’s struggles for form. It was Pandey’s first competitive match at the highest level since last year’s IPL. The batsman, who remains among the best players around, has not been picked by Karnataka for the 2025-26 home season.
PLAYERS IN ALL 19 SEASONS OF IPL
1. Virat Kohli
2. Rohit Sharma
3. Manish Pandey
The 44-year-old MS Dhoni will join that list if he plays for Chennai Super Kings this season, but a calf injury has kept the former skipper out of competitive action so far.
Pandey made his IPL debut for Mumbai Indians in 2008 before moving to Royal Challengers Bengaluru where he became the league’s first Indian centurion in 2009. He then joined the now defunct Pune Warriors India in 2010 and spent four seasons there. His best season came with KKR in 2014 when he played a key role in their second title triumph under Gautam Gambhir. He scored 400 runs in an IPL season for the first time that year.
He spent four seasons with KKR before moving to SunRisers Hyderabad in 2018. Pandey then played for Lucknow Super Giants in 2022 and Delhi Capitals in 2023 before returning to KKR in 2024. He played just one match in KKR’s winning season and three for the franchise last year.
KKR, who came into the game on a two-match winning streak, also brought back Fin Allen to give the New Zealand opener another chance after a string of setbacks earlier in the season.
SunRisers Hyderabad were without all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy who was rested due to illness. They brought back Harshal Patel and gave Karnataka an opportunity in the form of Smaran Ravichandran. However, Pandey’s recall was a major call for selection as it placed him alongside Kohli and Rohit in a small part of IPL history.
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Issued by:
Akshay Ramesh
Published on:
03 May 2026 16:18 IST
