Controversy over ‘walking out’ of a tour of South Africa in the end of 2023, being pulled up by the BCCI for neglecting domestic games and then being left out of the central contracts for a year, in a short span of time Ishan Kishan dealt with a range of issues his peers didn’t have to.
His inclusion in the Indian squad for the 2026 T20 World Cup is a bold move by the selectors and surprise for the common fan. It is also a reward for the way the Jharkhand hipster channelized inner unrest into something constructive on the field. He didn’t crib or play the victim. He kept quiet and let performance do the screaming.
It was a brave decision to drop Shubman Gill and bring in Kishan. Yashasvi Jaiswal was ahead of him in the queue and a part of the squad that won the 2024 T20 World Cup. He is in form too, having slammed a 50-ball hundred in the domestic T20 championship recently.
As chief selector Ajit Agarkar explained, the team management wanted both wicketkeepers to be opening options. That’s how Kishan joined Sanju Samson as the second keeper and edged out Jitesh Sharma, who was in the playing XI in the just-concluded series against South Africa.
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Having made his white-ball international debut in 2021, the diminutive left-handed batter has played 27 ODIs and 32 T20Is. Used mostly as a stop-gap, the 27-year-old hasn’t represented India for a little over two years now. Abhishek Sharma burst onto the scene in this period and made one opening slot his own.
It’s by the dint of his performance on the platforms available to him that Kishan has joined his Sunrisers Hyderabad teammate in the Indian World Cup side. He sparkled once in the beginning and once towards the end in IPL 2025, but when the opportunity came to perform for Jharkhand, he did well on most occasions.
The last of those came at the right moment, two days before the squad for the New Zealand series and T20 World Cup was announced. Kishan’s 49-ball 101 powered Jharkhand to victory in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy final. His second ton of the event couldn’t have been better timed. It was not an exception. Since last season, he has made centuries in all the domestic formats.
Other than providing more ammunition to the top-order of the Indian team, Kishan’s selection is also a reminder that selectors value performances in domestic T20 games. The Jharkhand skipper was far from exceptional in IPL2025. He still returned to the national team because he made important runs in the tournaments played away from the spotlight. That’s good news for Kishan and Indian domestic cricket.
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