Former Indian opener Virender Sehwag, who is currently involved in the Road Safety World Series 2021 in Raipur, lavished praise on Ishan Kishan following his memorable Team India debut on Sunday (March 14).
Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav were handed their India caps as the Mumbai Indians’ (MI) duo made their respective debut for the Virat Kohli-led Men in Blue in the second T20I of the five-match series versus England. While Surya took a catch but didn’t get to bat, the swashbuckling left-hander Kishan commenced from where he had left in the IPL 2020 edition, where he had amassed a staggering 516 runs.
The left-hander was asked to open the innings and lost his senior partner KL Rahul for a 5-ball duck in the 165-run chase in Ahmedabad. He, however, turned things around for India with captain Kohli (73 not out). Kishan was the dominator in their 94-run stand for the second-wicket as he returned with a match-winning 56, off 32 balls, with 5 fours and 4 sixes at a strike-rate of 175. His fearlessness and attacking instincts won him praises from all corners, including former dashing opener Sehwag.
Sehwag took to his official Twitter handle to share a post for Man-of-the-Match Kishan, but his tweet also had an MS Dhoni connection. Here’s what he wrote, “A young keeper batsman from Jharkhand promoted up the batting order and proving his caliber. This has happened before. Loved the fearlessness and attacking batting of Ishan Kishan.”
Though Ishan hails from Bihar, he represents Jharkhand in the domestic circuit and has been captaining the Jharkhand side for quite some time now.
In 2005, Sourav Ganguly-led Indian team management had also promoted Ishan’s senior statesman Dhoni up the order, at No. 3, to maximise his potential and power-hitting skills in an ODI versus Pakistan in Visakhapatnam. The former Indian captain didn’t disappoint as he returned with a scintillating 148 and led India to a convincing 58-run win over the Men in Green.
From there on, it was no looking back for the Jharkhand-born cricketer as he amassed 17,266 runs, along with 359 sixes, 634 catches, 195 stumpings and led India to all 3 major ICC titles during his glorious international career.
