Manish Pandey, Sunil Narine script rare records in SRH vs KKR IPL 2026 match

Manish Pandey and Sunil Narine scripted history as soon as the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain, Ajinkya Rahane, announced the playing combination against the Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.

To throw a strong challenge to the inform Sunrisers Hyderabad, KKR has made a couple of changes in their playing eleven. They have named Manish Pandey as the replacement of Ramandeep Singh, and Finn Allen is in place of Tim Seifert.

Manish Pandey achieves a rare record in league history

“We've got two changes. Finn Allen is back in place of Seifert, and then Manish Pandey is playing his first game of this season in place of Ramandeep Singh,” the KKR skipper said.

Manish Pandey is among the very few players who have been playing the Indian Premier League since the inaugural year, back in 2007/08. After making his IPL debut with the Mumbai Indians, the middle-order batter has played in each season. The seasoned batter has made history, as he is playing in the ongoing IPL season as well.

According to the stats, currently, there are only three players who have played at least one match in 19 seasons in the IPL. Along with Manish Pandey, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are the other two players who have achieved the record.

Sunil Narine surpasses Andre Russell in Men's T20s

The KKR stalwart Sunil Narine has also made a record. The 37-year-old West Indian spinner is now officially playing his 591 T20 game. Only Kieron Pollard has the most appearances in Men’s T20s over Sunil Narine. Narine has broken Andre Russell’s record in the record list.

Most appearances in Men's T20s

735 - Kieron Pollard

591 - Sunil Narine*

590 - Andre Russell

582 - Dwayne Bravo

565 - David Miller

SRH won the toss and chose to bat first vs KKR

Meanwhile, Sunrisers Hyderabad won the toss and elected to bowl first. During the writing of this article, they scored 59 runs in 5 overs in exchange for one wicket. Kartik Tyagi dismisses Abhishek Sharma early in the innings.

At the toss, the KKR skipper informed that as the pitch in Hyderabad looks nice for batting, they also had the plan to bat first if they won the toss. Ahead of the SRH match, KKR captured two consecutive wins, and is confident to extend the winning tally by defeating SRH at their home.

“We wanted to bat first as well. Those breaks so far have really helped us as a team, re-coupling and thinking about the things which we did right and the improvement point of view."

"As I said in the last game as well, it's all about winning those moments, small, small moments in this format. The game can change here and there within an over. It's all about being present, being slightly proactive, and also winning those moments. I thought those breaks, so far, definitely helped,” Ajinkya Rahan mentioned.

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