Indian batter Ishan Kishan has revealed that two bowlers he finds most challenging to face. Kishan named out-of-favor Yuzvendra Chahal among the spinners, as the most difficult. Among the fast bowlers, in-form Kishan picked none other than Jasprit Bumrah.
While Kishan has played with Bumrah at the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League, he has mostly played against Chahal in the tournament.
Meanwhile, Kishan was in rollicking form in the T20I series against New Zealand. He scored 215 runs in four matches at an average of 53.75 and a blistering strike rate of 231.18. The southpaw scored a blistering knock of 103 runs off just 43 balls against the Kiwis on Saturday.
Ishan Kishan said on 2 Sloggers YouTube Channel, “When it comes to spinners, even Yuzi bhai feels very difficult for me to face. It’s possible that he has analysed me a lot. As for pace bowling, who is better than Bumrah bhai? And if I keep talking about Bumrah bhai again, he might get upset because I mention him everywhere. Many times during practice, we don’t get the same kind of wickets.”
“Sometimes there is grass, sometimes it is dry soil, which makes it slower. When bowlers see a grassy wicket in the nets, they sometimes show mercy, thinking the batsman is one of their own, so they bowl a bit easier. But Bumrah bhai is not like that. If even one ball comes off the middle of the bat by mistake, you know for sure the next one is going to be a bouncer,” he added.
Kishan recently made a comeback into the Indian team after he scored 517 runs in 10 matches of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy while leading Jharkhand. The left-hander said he was focused on scoring the runs and left the selection to the selectors.
“You just keep working hard. There’s nothing you really need to worry about. You have one job. As a cricketer, I feel all we can do is bat and let the bat do the talking for ourselves. So I just had to do my job. And when you get there, you also realise that, yeah, all those sayings are actually true. That was the main thing, because my parents had shared so many such sayings while pushing me to work hard. Now we are beginning to understand which work actually matters. You just have to do your job well.”
“Expectations? What expectations, man? I think after a point you stop expecting and just keep doing your work your way. The best thing is to just keep working. Keep doing your job, keep batting. Making runs is your job. Taking catches is your job. Just keep doing it and the rest will fall into place. That was my only plan, and I think it worked pretty well for me because throughout that time I was very happy. I was in touch with everyone, with my friends and everybody. And I was just focusing on what I could change about myself,” he added.
India will begin their T20 World Cup campaign against the USA on February 7.
