Kolkata Knight Riders have given Manish Pandey a game against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Sunday, May 3, making him the third player after Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma to play at least one match in each of the 19 seasons of the Indian Premier League. The 36-year-old was bought in the auction for Rs 75 lakh as a replacement for Ramandeep Singh in the KKR XI for the ninth match of the season and had spent the initial part of the campaign on the bench during the team’s poor spell.

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Pandey was selected over young options like Tejashwi Dahiya and Sarthak Ranjan, while captain Ajinkya Rahane opted for experience after Ramandeep struggled for form. This was Pandey’s first competitive match at the highest level since last year IPL. The batsman, who is one of the fittest players, was not selected by Karnataka for the 2025-26 domestic season.

Players in all 19 seasons of IPL

1. Virat Kohli

2. Rohit Sharma

3. Manish Pandey

MS Dhoni, 44, would 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 Bangalore, where he became the first Indian centurion in the league 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 win under the captaincy of Gautam Gambhir. He scored 400 runs in an IPL season for the first time that year.

He spent four seasons at KKR before moving to Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2018. Pandey played for Lucknow Super Giants in 2022 and Delhi Capitals in 2023 before returning to KKR in 2024. He played only one game in KKR’s victorious season and three games for the franchise last year.

KKR, who came into the game on a two-match winning streak, also brought back Finn Allen, giving the New Zealand opener another chance after failures at the start of the season.

Sunrisers Hyderabad were without all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy, who was rested due to illness. They brought back Harshal Patel and gave a chance to Karnataka’s in-form Smrana Ravichandran. However, Pandey’s return was the key selection call, as it placed him alongside Kohli and Rohit in a small part of IPL history.

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