Follow UsIf one looks at the 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL) season for Ishan Kishan, you can divide it into three segments - first, when he scored 106 off just 47 deliveries in his first game of the season; second, the 10 innings after that where he scored just 125; and then the third and final part, where he scored 94* off just 48 deliveries against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on May 23 in Lucknow.
However, according to former SRH coach Tom Moody, Kishan might have just done enough against RCB to make SRH retain him, as the intent shown by the left-hander has been stellar.
“He was under a lot of pressure going into this game," Tom Moody said on ESPNCricinfo.
"He would have felt the fact that he has had a poor season even though he started very well. We were talking about that and you can guarantee [that] around the franchise, they were probably talking about it: do we keep him, do we retain him, what do we do, how do we go about it?
"I think he's made it very clear today that he is being retained, if there was any doubt. The composure stood out to me. And just his continued braveness to take the game on. Obviously helped because it was happening at the other end as well."
Such truncated rhythm and haphazard performance patterns were displayed not only by Kishan but by other key SRH batters as well, including Travis Head and Heinrich Klaasen. Former India Test skipper Anil Kumble weighed in on it and said that it was one of the key reasons SRH failed to make the playoffs.
"I think that if your opening partnership, which was so effective last year, between Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma - Abhishek has played well this season but Head hasn't been able to do it - then your No. 3 has a huge responsibility," Kumble said on ESPNCricinfo.
"His start to the season was great, but after that he was not in form. That certainly impacted the SRH performance. Not to forget that Klaasen couldn't do what was expected of him either. Nitish [Kumar] Reddy too. Aniket [Verma] played well, but if your main batters are not in form, maybe when you don't qualify for the playoffs you think about all these things."
SRH have managed to win only five out of the 13 games this season, and are eighth on the points table.