GUWAHATI: “I asked myself one question — can I do it again or not? And I had a very clear answer.” That was Ishan Kishan, collecting the player-ofthe-match award in only his second game back for India.For two years, the diminutive Jharkhand captain was out of the national set-up but never out of belief. The headspace he carried through that stretch — and the way he has re-entered the side — speaks to an inner steel that was tested and, ultimately, sharpened.
Kishan was dropped from the national reckoning and slipped off the BCCI central contracts list after he didn’t feature in domestic cricket following a request for time off on the South Africa tour in Dec 2023. The road back, however, wasn’t built on shortcuts. He went back to the grind, led Jharkhand to their maiden Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy title and made runs at a pace that forced the conversation to shift from “why” to “when”.That freedom — playing without the daily pressure of a national recall — showed up in Raipur on Friday. Walking in at No. 3 with India two down early, Kishan went straight at the New Zealand attack and never let the game settle. His 76 off 32 balls, including a 21-ball fifty, flipped a chase that had briefly looked edgy into a cruise.Kishan’s domestic season has been a statement in itself. He finished the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy with 517 runs, averaging 57.44 and striking at 200 — numbers that underline not just volume but impact.
With only three matches left in the series — and the T20 World Cup beginning on Feb 7 — Kishan translating domestic form to international runs is exactly the kind of timing India would have wanted.The first two games have been highscoring and India have ticked most boxes, but there is always room for finetuning in a game in which the dew factor is expected to have a significant say. Besides the in-form Abhishek Sharma — who followed his series-opening fireworks with a golden duck in Raipur — Kishan and ‘SKY’, the spotlight will also fall on opener Sanju Samson at the Barsapara Stadium on Sunday. Samson has looked short of runs in recent opportunities and will want a meaningful start at the top.If Kishan continues in the same vein, the management may be tempted to revisit batting combinations at the top.
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