NEW DELHI: Kolkata Knight Riders included Manish Pandey in the playing XI against Sunrisers Hyderabad in their IPL 2026 game on Sunday, making him only the third player after Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma to feature in at least one match in all 19 seasons of the Indian Premier League (IPL).The 36-year-old replaced Ramandeep Singh in the KKR XI for their ninth match of the season. He had been bought for Rs 75 lakh at the auction and had not played earlier in the season.
Pandey was picked ahead of younger players such as Tejasvi Dahiya and Sarthak Ranjan, with captain Ajinkya Rahane choosing experience after Ramandeep’s run of low scores. This was Pandey’s first match at the top level since last year’s IPL. He was not selected by Karnataka for the 2025-26 domestic season.MS Dhoni, who is 44, can also join this list if he plays for Chennai Super Kings this season, but he has not played so far due to a calf injury.Featuring in at least a game in each of the 19 seasons on IPL
- Virat Kohli
- Rohit Sharma
- Manish Pandey
Pandey started his IPL career with Mumbai Indians in 2008. He later moved to Royal Challengers Bengaluru, where he became the first Indian to score a century in the league in 2009. He then joined Pune Warriors India in 2010 and played there for four seasons.His most notable season came with Kolkata Knight Riders in 2014, when he was part of their title-winning campaign under Gautam Gambhir. He scored 400 runs in a season for the first time that year.He spent four seasons with KKR before moving to Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2018. He later played for Lucknow Super Giants in 2022 and Delhi Capitals in 2023 before returning to KKR in 2024. He played one match in KKR’s title-winning season and three matches last year.KKR, who had won their last two matches, also brought back Finn Allen, giving the opener another chance after a series of low scores earlier in the season.Sunrisers Hyderabad were without all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy, who was rested due to illness. They included Harshal Patel and gave a chance to Karnataka player Smaran Ravichandran.
