Ishan Kishan

Prodigies aren't uncommon in Indian cricket. What's unusual in Ishan Kishan's journey is the fact that its roots originate in Jharkhand. With MS Dhoni - the biggest and perhaps only noteworthy name to have come out of the newly carved out state, it's no surprise that the young kid took to become a wicket-keeping batsman. A left-handed opener, Kishan's first claim to fame came in 2016 when he was picked to lead the India Under-19s for the U-19 World Cup held in Dhaka.

Despite a lean run with the bat (73 runs in six innings), in a tournament where Rishabh Pant lit up the scoring charts, he led India to the finals. He was, however, quick to turn his fortunes around in the domestic Ranji season that was to follow - ending up as Jharkhand's leading run-scorer with 799 runs. That included a career best 273 against Delhi, the highest till date by a Jharkhand batsman.

While his batting was prospering at both the domestic and the franchise level, any further aspirations at the highest level remained a pipe-dream. India's white-ball opening pair was solid and in MS Dhoni, they had a long serving keeper as well a captain. Ishan Kishan also had competition and plenty of them, notably his U-19 opening partner Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, India's number 2 keeper-batter and a host of upcoming talents in the form of Sanju Samson and Dhruv Jurel. 

A superb 2020-21 IPL season, which was played in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), was the platform which brought Ishan Kishan into the national reckoning. 516 runs in a winning cause for the Mumbai Indians helped him secure a place in the Indian national team for the home T20I series against England. It was then followed with an ODI debut during the series against Sri Lanka. While his stats in the shorter format of the game was largely modest, Ishan's high point of his career came when he smashed a double hundred against Bangladesh in 2022. He followed it up with significant knocks, the innings of 82 against Pakistan in the 2023 Asia Cup standing out and was named in the 2023 World Cup squad. He did feature in the first two games, but was then left out in favour of the returning Shubman Gill.

Ishan Kishan's India career hit a jarring note after he was dropped from the annual contract list for the 2024 season. Citing mental fatigue, the southpaw didn't turn out for Jharkhand in domestic matches despite being clearly advised by the BCCI to do so. Sources hinted at his unhappiness in constantly warming the benches when part of the Indian national team for his decision to go against the BCCI diktat, a decision which led to him falling out of favor in the Indian set-up. However he continues to be a player in demand across IPL franchises and was roped in by the Sunrisers Hyderabad for a whopping 11.25 crores during the auction ahead of the 2025 season.