Full name Manish Krishnanand Pandey

Born September 10, 1989, Nainital, Uttaranchal

Current age 19 years 299 days

Major teams Karnataka, Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore

Batting style Right-hand bat

Bowling style Right-arm offbreak

Manish Pandey was a part of the Indian team that lifted the 2008 International Cricket Council (ICC) Under-19 World Cup in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. His impressive score of 72 runs was instrumental in India’s win over the Bangladesh Under-19 team at the final match of the Triangular tournament in January 2008.

Manish Pandey made his Twenty20 (T20) debut for the Karnataka team in a match against Kerala in Visakhapatnam on April 3, 2007. The following year in April, he went on to make his first appearance in a List A match for Karnataka against Saurashtra. He managed to score 45 runs on his debut at a strike rate of 84.9.

Manish Pandey was selected to be a member of the Mumbai Indians team owned by Reliance Industries Limited to play in the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2008. His last match of the season was against the Bangalore Royal Challengers in May that year.

Apart from playing cricket, Manish Pandey enjoys listening to music and reading books. Had it not been cricket, he would have followed the footsteps of his father to serve the Indian army or would have been a businessman by profession.

Manish Pandey will always be remembered as the first Indian to score a century in the IPL. In one night, the 19-year-old went from being Karnataka's next big Ranji hope to entering the record books as he hit his way to the highest Twenty20 score by an Indian. That century also probably meant he wouldn't have to carry out his intention of following his father into the army if he didn't make it as a professional cricketer. His batting anyway is not built on military discipline; Pandey has always been a free-scoring aggressive middle-order batsman and an athletic fielder.

His trademark half-sweep-half-flick - where he shapes to go for the sweep but just stretches towards the ball and flicks it, mostly towards midwicket - was quite the talk of the junior circles in Bangalore. That shot was on ample display when he scored two half-centuries in his first two Ranji Trophy matches, in the 2008-09 season. He came to Bangalore when he was 15 and stayed back when his father was transferred to Rajasthan three years later.

In those three years Pandey came to be well-regarded in the KSCA league, represented Karnataka at the Under-17 and Under-19 levels, and was always marked for a Ranji cap. He also represented India in the U-19 World Cup in 2008, though he didn't get many chances in that winning side.