Ishan Kishan hasn't looked back ever since his comeback to the Indian team.
Indian wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan reflected on his time away from international cricket, admitting that being dropped made him realize the consequences of his mistakes and drove him to rebuild his game through domestic grind and fitness.
The southpaw was sidelined from the national setup in late 2023 after stepping away from the South Africa tour and skipping domestic fixtures, which also led to the loss of his central contract.
Instead of dwelling on the setback, Kishan stayed patient and threw himself back into domestic cricket, scoring heavily across tournaments—including leading Jharkhand to a historic Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy title and winning the Duleep Trophy final with East Zone.
After receiving a recall to the Indian team earlier this year, the 27-year-old hasn’t looked back. He has embraced a process-oriented approach, focusing strictly on preparation and contributing to team success rather than fearing another omission.
Speaking to JioStar following India's 8-wicket win over the West Indies in the first T20I in Lucknow on Tuesday (October 6), Ishan Kishan shared how losing his spot and his BCCI central contract became the catalyst for a vital career transformation.
“When I was dropped from the international team, I understood the consequences of a few mistakes that I had made," Ishan said. “So, I worked on my fitness and my batting. I stayed patient and focused on rectifying my mistakes by doing well in domestic cricket."
“I knew if I kept performing in domestic cricket, the opportunity would come and I earned the recall to the national squad because of my hard work. Once you come back to the side, you don’t think about what’s going to happen if I get dropped again. The most important thing is to enjoy cricket and just focus on doing the best I can to contribute to the success of the team. My job is to keep scoring runs and if I am able to do that, then the rest will be taken care of automatically," he added.
His renewed maturity was visible during the first T20I against the West Indies. Recognizing that his partner Shreyas Iyer (102* off 43) was in phenomenal touch, Kishan selflessly rotated the strike and anchored the other end, finishing on an unbeaten 37 off 27 balls.
“As a batter, when I’m not looking in that great of a touch and the batter at the other end is looking in great form and is connecting the ball well, in this case Shreyas Iyer, then I don’t mind playing second fiddle at all," Kishan stated.
“He (Iyer) was scoring the bulk of the runs in our partnership and when he’s batting beautifully, it’s my job to let him punish the opposition bowlers. He did that job remarkably and, in the end, we executed the run chase successfully," he further remarked.