Team India wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan played a key role in the side’s last-over win against Australia in the first T20I in Vishakapatnam on Thursday. He smashed 58 runs off just 39 balls to provide the much-needed boost that India required midway through the run chase as well. Kishan came in at No. 3 in the batting order, and along with Yashasvi Jaiswal, he compiled 112 runs for the third wicket off just 60 deliveries as well.
While talking about his knock, Kishan said: “During the World Cup, when I wasn’t playing, I asked myself before every practice session ‘What is important for me now? What I could do?’ I practised a lot in nets. I was co instantly talking to the coaches about the game, how to take the game deep. How to target certain bowlers. Being a lefty against leg-spinner, I know how the wicket was as I had kept for 20 overs.”
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“When you are chasing 209, you need to target a bowler, who you can hit. The communication was very important in the middle. I had a chat with Surya bhai. ‘I’m gonna take this guy (down) wherever he bowls’ because we needed the close the gap between runs and balls. You can’t leave too many runs for the batters at the back. It won’t be easy for them to play the big shots straight away. I had to take my chances and I believed in myself,” he further added.
While Sangha had dismissed the left-handed batter, Ishan Kishan did the damage by then. He ended with figures of 2-47 after he took Tilak Varma’s wicket in his final over as well. On the other hand, Suryakumar Yadav also played well. However, he was batting at 19 runs off 21 deliveries before he availed an opportunity to take down Sangha.
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“A partnership was very important as we had lost two early wickets. I’ve played with Surya bhai. We are in the same IPL team so I know how he bats. We were constantly communicating about which bowler to target or how we are going to rotate the strike. The way we executed our plans in the middle… That was the time when I thought we are in the game,” Ishan Kishan concluded.
