Ishan Kishan

From Bihar, Ishan Kishan is a dashing wicket-keeper batter who has been earmarked as a future star for quite some time now. Kishan was originally from Bihar but he switched to Jharkhand after certain registration issues with the state association. 

Kishan made his first-class debut in 2014 and went onto score 451 runs from six matches. However, it was in the next season that he really made the headlines with a stunning 69-ball 87-run assault against a Saurashtra bowling attack that had the likes of Jaydev Unadkat and Ravindra Jadeja. The knock was especially appreciated as it was a tricky surface at Rajkot. 

Overall, he only played four matches in that 2015-16 Ranji Trophy season due to preparations for the U-19 World Cup in Bangladesh. With the junior India selectors identifying leadership skills in the keeper-batsman, Kishan was appointed as the captain for the India U-19 team. He led the side to a tri-series win against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh before going to the U-19 World Cup in early 2016. Although Kishan struggled throughout the tournament with the bat, he impressed with his captaincy as the side finished runners-up to the West Indies. 

In the 2016-17 Ranji Trophy season, Kishan improved by leaps and bounds with 799 runs from 10 matches. This tally also included a career-best 273-run knock against Delhi. Since then, the southpaw has become a consistent run-scorer for Jharkhand in all formats.  

After finishing the 2017-18 Ranji season as the state’s leading scorer with 484 runs, Kishan produced two back-to-back superb campaigns in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. In the 2018-19 season, Kishan ended up with 405 runs from nine matches to top the batting charts for Jharkhand. The aggressive stroke-maker had a fantastic Syed Mushtaq Ali campaign too in the same season with 333 runs in eight matches at a strike-rate of 151.36. 

Such consistent performances for Jharkhand made Kishan a regular for the India A side too. 

At the IPL, Kishan made his debut for the Gujarat Lions in 2016. However, he couldn’t do much while batting in a tough lower middle-order position. Kishan continued to bat down the order in 2017 but he eventually got a chance to permanently open the batting in the second half of the season. The move reaped rewards as he ended the tournament with 277 runs from 11 matches including a maiden IPL fifty against Sunrisers Hyderabad.

This helped Kishan in the next season as Mumbai Indians bought him for a massive INR 6.2 crores in the 2018 IPL auction. He had a decent campaign that year with 275 runs from 14 matches including a 21-ball 62 against Kolkata Knight Riders. In 2019, Mumbai lifted their 4th IPL title but Kishan had a disappointing season on a personal front. 

The Covid-19 pandemic came at the right moment in a way for Kishan as he had a poor 2019-20 season in all the formats. After a long wait, the 2020 IPL season commenced in September but Kishan didn’t start the first couple of matches due to an injury. However, he made a stunning introduction by scoring 99 runs off 58 balls against Royal Challengers Bangalore in a game that MI lost in the super over.

He made his T20I debut against England in 2021 and was named Player of the Match for his fifty. He became only the second Indian batter to smash a half-century on T20I debut.

In July 2021, he made his ODI debut and like the T20I one, he again brought up his fifty while batting at No.3 versus Sri Lanka.

Kishan received a World Cup call-up in 2021 for the T20 version of the event that was held in the UAE. He played only one match, replacing Rohit Sharma as an opener. The move did not work as the youngster scored only four runs in the must-win clash versus New Zealand.

Despite a sub-par IPL 2021, Kishan grew in stature and landed a whopping 15.25 crore IPL deal by Mumbai Indians as he became the most expensive player in the 2022 auction.

In the 2022 and 2023 editions of the tournament, Kishan scored above 400 runs each. That being said, he was still far away from operating at his best with his performance as an opener proving to be a big letdown for MI.

He was dropped from India’s squad for the T20 World Cup 2022. 

In December 2022, Kishan fired a double-ton in an ODI against Bangladesh, joining the illustrious list boasting the names of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill as Indians. Kishan brought up this feat in just 126 balls, holding the record of the quickest double-century to-date in the ODI format.

In January 2023, the southpaw received his maiden Test call-up for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 but made his debut in the longest-format six months later in the Caribbean. He made a quick-fire fifty in the second match of the series.

As Kishan struck a string of fifties, including the one in a rain-affected Asia Cup 2023 match versus Pakistan, he got selected for the ODI World Cup 2023 and featured in only two games in the tournament as Shubman’s replacement.

After the World Cup, Kishan got back his T20I form, hitting two consecutive half-centuries in the Australia series. He then asked for a break and made himself unavailable for selection, citing mental fatigue.

Still only 25 years old, the world is at his feet for Kishan. If he manages to add consistency to his aggressive brand of cricket, there is no stopping him from having a long career for both Mumbai Indians and the senior Indian team.

(As of May 2024)