The Mumbai Indians left-hander, Ishan Kishan, has revealed that the chat that he had with Virat Kohli after his form dipped a little bit helped him a lot as Virat conveyed clearly to him that he was picked in the Indian squad for the T20 World Cup as an opener, and he should be ready to open the batting whenever the opportunity came.
After that game against RCB, Ishan lost his place in the Mumbai Indians squad, but he was brought back into the fold ahead of the game against Rajasthan Royals and this time around, he was given the opportunity to open the batting rather than no. 4.
Ishan Kishan flourished as soon as he got the opportunity to open the batting
Ishan flourished at his preferred opening slot straight away as he slammed two back to back fifties in Mumbai’s last two games of the tournament to make sure his place in the World Cup squad of India is safe.
Two fifties that Ishan scored, both came at a brisk rate and one of them came on a very tricky surface in Sharjah where almost all the batsmen in the game struggled apart from him. Ishan scored a 25-ball fifty there and then smashed 80 odd off just 30 oddballs on a good batting surface in Abu Dhabi last night to give Mumbai the slightest bit of chance to make it to the playoffs.
“I had a good chat with Virat bhai, Jasprit Bhai also helped me. Everyone supported me and they said it’s a learning stage for you, make sure you learn from here. I would love to open and that’s what Virat Bhai said – ‘you are selected as an opener, you just have to be prepared for that,” Ishan was quoted as saying in his post-match interview.
Ishan Kishan had a very successful last IPL season where he had hit the most number of sixes in the competition and had caught the eyes of national selectors as well.
