India’s in-form opener Ishan Kishan has admitted he is a changed man now amid the T20 World Cup 2026. Kishan revealed he loves joking around, but he is more focused on his batting and wicket-keeping. The left-hander said he is more serious in his preparation and thus has reaped rewards in the recent past.
Meanwhile, Kishan scored 61 runs off just 24 balls with the help of six fours and five sixes at a whirlwind strike rate of 254.17 to help India post 209 runs on the board. The left-hander took a bit of time to hit the ground running but soon changed his gears. The southpaw completed his fifty off just 20 balls as he batted at the top of his game.
Kishan smashed JJ Smit for 28 runs in the sixth over and gave all the momentum to India.
Ishan Kishan said in the post-match press conference, “I am a changed man now. I don’t get into it too much. I do enjoy jokes and everything. Earlier, I used to do it 24×7, but now it’s just 2-3 hours of it. I am just focusing more on batting and my wicketkeeping, which is going to help the team and which is going to help me. Everything else is secondary. So, I am not just joking especially under Gauti bhai [Gautam Gambhir] it’s [laughs]…”
On the other hand, Kishan gave credit to the Namibian bowlers for hitting the right lengths during the death overs.
He added, “In both the wickets, I feel it was a bit different from what we expected to happen. And today, looking at the death overs, when we were not able to regularly hit big sixes, I think we need to also give credit to Namibia bowlers because they were bang on with their yorkers, they were bang on with their slower ones.”
“So yeah, it was a good learning. Maybe if some other team is doing the same thing, maybe we can use the crease more or we can do something different, which can irritate the bowler,” the Jharkhand cricketer added.
India will next take on arch-rivals Pakistan at the R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, on Sunday.
