“Can I again wear that India jersey and perform?” was the question Ishan Kishan asked himself after doing some introspection during his two years of international wilderness.
He responded with an emphatic “yes,” and the outcome was a devastating 76 off 32 balls in his second international match since making a comeback, making the target of 209 set by New Zealand in the second Twenty20 International seem effortless.
When asked what he told himself after being cut from the Indian squad after winning player-of-the-match, Kishan responded: “I asked myself one question (his comeback) – can I do it again or not? And I had a very clear answer.”
Before leading Jharkhand to their first Syed Mushtaq Ali National T20 title with a season of more than 500 runs, Kishan is a prime example of returning to the domestic grind and beginning with a bottom-up strategy by competing in events like the Buchi Babu Trophy and DY Patil.
“I was just looking to score runs (in domestic cricket). Sometimes it’s important to do it for yourself, to answer your own questions about how you’re batting and whether you’re capable of playing for India. That’s why it was important for me to play domestic cricket and get runs. The good part was that we won the trophy as well, and I carried that confidence here. So it was a pretty good day for me,” PTI quoted the ‘Pocket Dynamo’ from Patna as saying.
Kishan was able to dominate even when India was down at 6/2 after losing Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson because he believed that mentality was more important than anything else.
“I was focusing more on what I had to do today and being in a very good headspace for this game. Sometimes you understand that you’re batting well. I just needed to get runs somewhere to answer my questions. Even if I got out, I just wanted to play good cricket, that was it.”
Kishan said that he steered clear of risky shots despite batting at a strike-rate of around 240.
“We were looking not to take risks, not to go cross-batted, but I was still looking to score as many runs as possible in the Powerplay. At the end of the day, when you’re chasing a 200-plus total, you have to get good runs in the Powerplay.”
