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Follow UsThere are multiple questions India need to answer before the ODI World Cup. In this case, let’s stick to the batting department.
Who is the back-up opener? Who is your left-hander in the top six? What if Shreyas Iyer or/and KL Rahul don’t recover on time? Who is the back-up wicketkeeper?
Too many questions, but the Indian team management seems to have zeroed in on Ishan Kishan as their answer to all the aforementioned questions. Since his ODI debut in 2021, inconsistency has been the only constant in Kishan’s life in the 50-over format.
No, we are not talking about his batting. That’s been pretty good, as his average of 46.27 would suggest. It’s his role in the Indian set-up that keeps changing series after series. The left-hander only has 16 ODI innings to his name but has already batted across four positions.
Kishan started his ODI career at No. 3 but was promoted up the order in the solitary game he played against West Indies in 2022. He was then asked to bat at No. 4 against Zimbabwe before going back to No. 3 against South Africa.
In the only game he played against Bangladesh in December 2022, Kishan opened the innings and smoked 210. Despite that knock, the 25-year-old was pushed to No. 4 against New Zealand earlier this year but has played as an opener in his last four ODIs.
There have been a lot of uncertainties around India’s ODI set-up since Rahul, Iyer and Rishabh Pant picked up injuries and the management has used Kishan as a stop-gap fix for all of them. The left-hander from Jharkhand, however, has gone about his business without complaining and pounced on almost every single opportunity that has come his way.
Let’s talk about what he did in the three ODIs against West Indies. Kishan managed scores of 52, 55 and 77 and became only the second Indian wicketkeeper-batter to slam three consecutive fifties after MS Dhoni (five times). The opener ended the series as the leading run-scorer and did all this at a strike rate of 111.52.
India’s top three is more or less fixed, with Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli taking these spots. However, both Rohit and Kohli missed the last two ODIs against West Indies and hardly did anything in the first encounter. And, that allowed Kishan to form an opening combination with Gill.
The surfaces on offer weren’t easy to bat on at all but that didn’t stop Kishan from playing his natural game. In fact, in none of these three games did Kishan operate at a strike rate of less than 100. The Men in Blue only had to hunt down 114 in the first ODI in Barbados but things could have got difficult if not for Kishan’s 46-ball 52. In the same game, no Indian batter had a strike rate of more than 80.
The batting got even more difficult in the second game. Hardik Pandya and Co. were bundled out for 181 but Kishan once again managed to leave an impression, scoring a run-a-ball 55. The other batters failed to step up and India ended up losing the game by five wickets.
The series decider on Tuesday (August 1) was as one-sided as it could get but Kishan once again stepped up. He smacked 77 off 64 deliveries, studded with eight fours and three maximums, and put up 143 runs for the opening wicket with Gill. Kishan ended the series with 184 runs @ 61.33 and was named Player of the Series.
“I think Ishan has done well. This is his third fifty in a row, counting the Test one as well. Again he is someone who is taking the opportunity when he is given the chance. I think that’s all we asked from a young player,” said Indian head coach Rahul Dravid after the second ODI.
If you look at his numbers, Kishan’s best position is as an opener. In six innings, he has smashed 425 runs @ 70.83 with a strike rate of 125. No other Indian opener has scored more runs than Kishan in his first six ODI innings. He also averages 40.75 at No. 3, but that drops down to 21.2 when he bats at No. 4.
That low average is largely because of him starting against spin. Early in his innings, Kishan enjoys pace and once he is set, the batter doesn’t mind taking on spinners. That should serve as a clue for the management not to use him outside of the top three. He averages 61.17 against pace and strikes at 103.97, while his corresponding numbers against spin are 46.71 and 111.6 respectively.
The perfect example of how Kishan operates was that double ton against Bangladesh. He got to start against Mustafizur Rahman and Taskin Ahmed, but once he settled down, Kishan wreaked havoc against Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Shakib Al Hasan. He clobbered 24 fours and 10 maximums and made Kohli’s ton look ordinary.
Kishan averages 90 in the first powerplay and has a strike rate of 80.72. And, when it comes to middle overs (11-40), Kishan has the best strike rate (122) amongst batters who have scored at least 500 runs in this phase since 2021. He also averages 42.5 in this phase, which is not bad at all.
Kishan won’t always give you big runs and has a couple of noticeable flaws in his batting, but at the same time, he has the capability of playing those match-winning knocks on a consistent basis. He has been guilty of not scoring hundreds but seven 50-plus scores in 16 innings tells you something about his consistency.
There were not too many positives to emerge from this West Indies series but the management would be happy with the fact that they have all but confirmed India’s back-up opener. But again, what if Iyer and Rahul don’t recover by Asia Cup? If that happens, it would be ideal to use someone like Sanju Samson in the middle-order rather than batting Kishan out of position.
You never know what the management is going to do with Kishan but the young batter is doing everything in his control to stay relevant. As they say, control the controllables, and Kishan is doing exactly that.
