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Follow UsHe opened in Bangladesh because Shubman Gill wasn’t in the ODI squad. He scored a double-century in 35 overs!
Then Shubman was back in the squad for the New Zealand ODIs, but Shreyas Iyer was injured. So he batted at four in all the three matches of the series.
He next played against Australia and this time Rohit Sharma had vacated a spot at the top. The leftie-batter had no qualms in opening the batting again. But Rohit was back in the team for the next two ODIs. So he warmed the bench with a smile (sulking isn’t his cup of tea).
Just before the Asia Cup, India went to the Windies, and he was made to open again, scoring fifties every time he stepped on the crease with a rectangular piece of wood in his palms.
Most recently against Pakistan in the Asia Cup, he had to bat at five as KL Rahul was suffering from a niggle. He batted against the Pakistani pace trio, staging a strong comeback with Hardik Pandya. He scored 82 when the team was reduced to 66-4. It seems like he has aced all the tests, right?
But once KL is back, there is no guarantee he will be India’s first-choice keeper-batter. He might warm the bench again, and it will be hard for him not to sulk this time.
However, Ishan Kishan made it to the 15 who will represent the country at the ICC ODI World Cup 2023. It is only because he has been the opposite of the proverbial minimum guy for India.
One-stop solution for both the top and the middle-order
In the 10 months since that double-century in Chattogram, Ishan Kishan has batted everywhere in the top 5. Call it a selection conundrum, or India’s bad luck with injuries, he has been made air-dropped like a paratrooper and he has completed the mission assigned to him.
If Rohit or Shubman get injured, or Shubman isn’t in form, Ishan can slot in the team as an opener. Being a left-hander, he also opens up another dynamic for the opposition to think about, posing them with questions. Essentially, he can be an assurance against getting blown up by a left-arm pacer, something the Indian top-order has experienced more often than they would have liked.
His consecutive fifties against the West Indies was the final stamp the team management needed to seal him as the back-up opener. The numbers back this decision as well, as after playing four innings at the top, he’s averaging 70.83 and is striking at 125 in ODIs!
Middle-Order
As far as the middle order is concerned, Ishan has batted there for the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League (IPL) but ODI middle-order batting is tricky.
You can come in early like he did against Pakistan if the team has lost the openers cheaply. You can also arrive when half or more of the inning is done, and you need to build on the platform provided by the top order and further the team’s total. Lastly, it could also happen that you come to bat in the last 15 overs, and the team needs you to accelerate like a Ferrari.
Ishan has played all those roles. In the innings against Pakistan, he arrived early, soaked in the pressure, survived a break-in rhythm due to a rain break, and rebuilt the innings by scoring more than a run-a-ball. He was playing in KL’s position that day, and as a fellow batter, he would have been proud of the way Ishan played that day.
As far as stepping on the gas in the death overs, everyone knows that Kishan is more than capable of doing that. In Chattogram, where he scored a double century, he was batting with such fearlessness and panache that he had reached 210 in just 35 overs!! He was looking towards a triple hundred but was dismissed in the 36th.
Apart from being a ready-made replacement option for KL Rahul, he can also equip India with a left-handed batting option in their middle order, something which they haven’t been able to find ever since Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina departed from the Indian set-up.
Rishabh Pant looked like a worthy successor with his counter-attacking hundred in England, but his unfortunate accident has kept him away from the game since then.
Ishan also benefitted from the team management’s lack of trust in Sanju Samson for the middle order, despite him averaging 52 and 92 with SRs of 89.7 and 111.7 at numbers five and six, respectively. It could be that Samson’s inconsistency on the West Indies tour affected his chances.
Regardless, Kishan has been locked in the 15 for the World Cup, and with his performance in the Asia Cup so far, the team’s confidence resides in him.
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Ishan Kishan’s place is still not fixed in Team India’s first XI for ICC World Cup 2023. KL Rahul will most probably play ahead for him. But Kishan has excelled so far in uncertainty. He has embraced it, and, as the cliche goes, he has played the situation and not the man.
However, is it fair that the team management has given him a role with a lot of uncertainty? No! But modern cricket demands batters to be flexible. Look at how England has structured their provisional squad around batters who are flexible enough to bat anywhere.
In the Indian squad, only Ishan Kishan has trained (unintentionally) for this role, getting ready to give everything with the bat, anytime, anywhere. And he might well and truly be India's X-factor, when the occasion demands.
