Ishan Kishan has not donned the Indian colours across formats in the last two years. His previous appearance for the Men In Blue was in November 2023, which was a T20I affair against Australia in Guwahati. Ishan has since been sidelined but the out-of-favour star has kept the performance on in the domestic circuit.
On Thursday, fans witnessed yet another carnage from the 27-year-old wicketkeeper-batter. Ishan, who has led Jharkhand to the Syed Mushtaq Ali final, was unstoppable at MCA Ground in Pune. He played a whirlwind knock of 101 off just 46 balls and in the process knocked six 4s and ten 6s.
Such was his magnificence that the southpaw touched the triple-digit mark with a one-handed six. He took 45 balls to reach the milestone and celebrated the moment in the Pushpa style.
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Ishan's effort were brilliantly complimented by his teammates Kushagra, who blasted 81 off 38 balls (eight 4s, five 6s), and Anukul Roy and Robin Minz. Both returned unbeaten, which was after a solid cameos to push Jharkhand's total to a staggering 262/3 after being invited to bat first by Haryana.
The opposition in response were folded at 193, handing Jharkhand a historic 69-run victory.
Reacting to his snub from the national setup, which has now been by over two years, Kishan as quoted by Sportstar said: "When I was not selected for the Indian team, I felt quite bad because I was doing well. But I told myself that if I am not selected despite this sort of performance, then maybe I have to do more. Maybe I have to make my team win. Maybe we have to do well as a unit."
"It's important that you don't allow frustration to get to you. This is my message to all the youngsters: frustration is something that will take you one step down. At the same time, you need to put in a lot of hard work, believe in yourself, and just focus on what you need to achieve," he added.
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The knock also came at a pivotal time with the T20 World Cup fast approaching. However, Kishan asserted he in a zone, where he's focused on performance than worry about if he'll make the cut for India for the showpiece event, scheduled to played in February-March next year. "I know you fancy your chances a lot of times, and when you don't see your name, you just feel bad about it. I'm not in that zone anymore. I'm not expecting anything," he said with a smile, before adding: "My job is to just keep performing."
