6 players who would be missed by their IPL franchises and fans

#2 Manish Pandey

South Africa v India - T20 International — Manish Pandey gave stability to the middle-order of KKR

Manish Pandey will always be remembered as the first Indian to score a century in the IPL. He was picked by Royal Challengers Bangalore in the first three seasons of the IPL, Pandey was then signed by the Pune Warriors ahead of IPL 2011 and continued it till 2013 and at the IPL Player Auction 2014, he was purchased by the Kolkata Knight Riders.

He led his team to its second IPL title by playing an unbelievable inning of 94 runs in the final against Kings XI Punjab in the 2014 edition.

Pandey slowly established himself in the middle-order of the KKR with his natural stroke playing abilities.

In 2017, he scored 396 runs at an average of 49.5 in 14 matches. He played many innings in the middle order where with his composure and ability to soak pressure, he chased down the targets for KKR.

KKR did not retain him prior to the auction. At the auction, he went to Sunrisers Hyderabad for a price of 11 crores, which was not affordable for KKR.

Pandey would be greatly missed in KKR's middle order when they would have a huge target to chase.

About the author

Cricket was always like a religion for me since my childhood. It first caught my attention in the Kolkata test vs Australia and when South Africa chased down 434 against Australia, my fascination for the game has reached new heights.
My current drug is league cricket especially IPL and CPL. I loved when these formats proved every critics wrong.
I also love to analyse the game from data point of view and I would like to thank Sportskeeda for giving me this opportunity for expressing views on the game an its future.

Know More

Get real-time updates on IPL 2025, live scores, IPL Prediction, match schedule, points table,Result & squad -CSK, MI, RCB, KKR, SRH, LSG, DC, GT, PBKS

Edited by Alan John