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The West Indies tour has been a memorable for Ishan Kishan in the Test and ODI series but he seems to be unable to shake off his poor form in the T20Is.
Kishan made his Test debut in the series and scored an unbeaten 52 off 34 balls in the second Test. In the ODI series that followed, Kishan scored half centuries in all three matches.
However, the 25-year-old got out to a single digit score in the first T20I and for 23 off 23 in the second before being replaced by Yashasvi Jaiswal at the top of the order. In fact, while Kishan is known as one of the most impressive batters in the IPL, he hasn’t quite had the same impact in T20 internationals. In 29 matches, Kishan has scored 686 runs at a middling strike rate of 121.63 and average of 24.50. In ODI cricket, on the other hand, Kishan has scored 694 runs in 17 matches at an average of 46.26 and strike rate of 107.34, which in the format is an astonishingly high number.
Meanwhile, Kishan has scored 2324 runs in 91 matches at a strike rate of 134.26 in his IPL career. Former India opener Aakash Chopra has said that Kishan’s struggles show just how different T20Is are from the IPL. “He has scored a double century in ODI cricket as an opener but he hasn’t fired in T20Is. Let’s not confuse T20Is with the IPL,” he said on his Youtube channel.
“In the IPL, you have a long season of 14 matches, if you bat at the top of the order and are an important player, like Ishan Kishan is for the Mumbai Indians, your place is secured and you keep on playing in one way. You know that there are a lot of matches. So you find your rhythm at some stage.”
“However, when you play T20Is, one series comes in three months. If you don’t start well in that series, suddenly you start thinking because the number of matches is limited and your place is not yet fully secured, someone or the other is waiting behind you,” he said.
Yashasvi Jaiswal competing for the same spot
Kishan was replaced as wicketkeeper by Sanju Samson while Jaiswal, who had also made his Test debut earlier in the tour and scored 171 runs in his first innings itself, replaced him at the top of the order. “So if someone is waiting and there is pressure on you, sometimes you tend to forget what your template was. If you see the current series, he played only two matches, he has more than 50% dot balls. Ishan Kishan didn’t use to play so many dot balls.”
Holding back Jaiswal from the opening slot in T20Is is no easy task. The Mumbai youngster showed why he is regarded as one of the most exciting talents in Indian cricket by taking the 2023 season of the IPL by storm. He scored 626 runs in 14 matches for the Rajasthan Royals at a strike rate of 163.61 and average of 48.08 with one century and five half centuries to his name. One of those half centuries was an unbeaten 47-ball 98 against KKR in which he reached fifty in just 13 balls, thus breaking the record for the fastest half century in the IPL. It was also the second fastest half century in T20 history, only behind Yuvraj Singh’s whirlwind 12-ball half century against England in the 2007 World Cup which he got to after hitting six sixes in an over
