“Nada puede perder” Manish Pandy

Kolkata Knight Riders batter Manish Pandey is confident of handing RCB an upset in what will be his homecoming. The defending champions will lock horns with Rajat Patidar and co. in Bengaluru on Saturday in a game that will mark the restart of IPL 2025. RCB are 2nd on the points table, needing just one more win to qualify for the IPL 2025 playoffs. Meanwhile, KKR are 6th and need more than just two wins to make it to the top four.

“Everything to gain”

Speaking ahead of RCB vs KKR match, Pandey admitted that KKR haven’t been consistent in IPL 2025. He explained that the side was pretty patchy both in terms of bowling and batting. The batter noted that the defending champions had failed to put up performances like they did in 2024. However, Pandey pinned his hopes on the side retaining a strong core for the next season.

“Last time we were winning games, a lot of games, which is very important in a tournament like IPL. This time we were winning one, but were losing one. The whole tournament was like that. Our batting has been fine. We have been bowling really well. It has been a year where it has been a little patchy in terms of both the performances, batting and bowling. Hopefully, we will have a similar strong core for next year as well and can win games like we were doing last year,” Pandey explained.

IPL 2025 will resume after a one week suspension. The league was temporarily halted last Friday due to tensions between India and Pakistan. Talking about the small break, Manish claimed that the players were always aware of fact that IPL 2025 would resume soon and hence were well prepared.

“It doesn’t really change much because as professional cricketers, we know what’s to be done. We definitely knew that the tournament would resume, but we didn’t know how soon. But it was good that we didn’t have a lot of break,” Pandey said.