Mumbai Indians (MI) batter Ishan Kishan was going through a lean patch in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) scoring just 107 runs in eight matches after and was dropped from the side for the next couple of games.
Ishan’s place in the Indian team’s squad for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2020 squad was questioned but some motivating words from his India captain Virat Kohli following MI’s game against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and support from his teammates Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard worked magic for him.
The swashbuckling southpaw returned to the side as an opener replacing Proteas wicket-keeper batter Quinton de Kock and he was just a completely different player. The fearless attitude and the positive midset was back as Ishan after playing maiden over against Rajasthan Royals, came back to his smashing form as he scored 50 off just 25 balls.
Ishan bettered in MI’s final game of the tournament where they were chasing a miracle to qualify for the playoffs and he just took off.
MI had no other option but to come out all guns blazing and boy did the pocket dynamo Ishan was up to the task. Ishan just launched from the first over itself sending Mohammad Nabi delivery for a six and followed it up with four boundaries in the second over bowled by Siddharth Kaul.
Rohit Sharma worked in singles and kept giving the strike to Ishan, who had come in Hulk mood – SMASH. It didn’t matter for him if it was Jason Holder or Rashid Khan or Umran Malik in front of him, he just wanted to belt the ball out of the park. Ishan brought up the fastest fifty of this season and for a Mumbai Indians batter in the history of the tournament as he went on to score 84 runs off just 32 balls.
After the game, Ishan was asked which batting number he prefers as for the most part of the season he was batting at No 4 but as soon as he was promoted t the top of the order, he was just a different player altogether.
He said, “I would love to open and that’s what Virat Bhai said – ‘you are selected as an opener, you just have to be prepared for that.’ In the bigger stage, you need to be prepared for every situation I feel.”
Ishan and Suryakumar Yadav both coming back to the form ahead of T20 World Cup was a good sign for the Indian team.
“A very good thing for me and for the team getting some runs, and getting into good touch before the World Cup. Was in good state of mind, was very positive. We had to get somewhere around 250-260, it was the intent and positive intent. The one I smacked off Malik through the covers – that’s the one (his favourite shot),” he said.
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