Manish Pandey becomes third player with this IPL feat: Details
What's the story
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) captain Pat Cummins has won the toss and opted to bat first against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in their IPL 2026 clash at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. SRH have made two changes to their playing XI, bringing in Harshal Patel and giving a debut cap to Ravichandran Smaran. They replace Nitish Kumar Reddy and Harsh Dubey. KKR have also made two changes with Finn Allen replacing Tim Seifert and Manish Pandey coming in for Ramandeep Singh.
Elite list
Manish joins this elite list
This is Manish's first game of the season. With this, the veteran batter has become only the third player to play at least one match in every season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) since the inception of the tournament in 2008. As per Cricbuzz, he has joined batting talismans Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma on this list. MS Dhoni, who is yet to play a match this season, can also attain this milestone.
Stats
Nearly 4,000 IPL runs for Pandey
Pandey's journey started with his IPL debut with Mumbai Indians in 2008. He later represented Royal Challengers Bengaluru, KKR, the now-defunct Pune Warriors India, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), and Delhi Capitals (DC). The veteran was instrumental in KKR's 2014 title win, scoring a vital match-winning 94 in the final. As per ESPNcricinfo, he has accumulated 3,942 runs from 175 IPL games at 29.41 (50s: 22, 100: 1).
Information
Pandey is the first Indian centurion in IPL
It must be noted that Pandey made history in the 2009 season by scoring an unbeaten 114 for RCB against Deccan Chargers. He had become the first Indian to score a century in the cash-rich league. However, his role has been reduced since the last few seasons. While he played just one match for KKR in 2024, he took the field thrice last year.