Ishan Kishan often gets compared with the World Cup-winning Indian captain.
While Kishan was born in Bihar, he represented Dhoni’s home state Jharkhand in domestic cricket. Moreover, him being a wicketkeeper and an attacking batter also lead to fans drawing similarities between the two.
Speaking to senior journalist Vimal Kumar on his YouTube channel, Kishan admitted that there has been ‘pressure’ on him whenever he has been compared to Dhoni, but he has confidence in his abilities.
“I have this in-built tendency in myself to remain confident about myself, regarding my skillset and my hand-eye coordination," Kishan stated.
He added, “Obviously there is pressure when people compare me to Mahi bhai, because he’s done so much for India, and won so many trophies, but I kept all that aside. I used to learn from his work ethic, whenever I met him I used to him ask him ‘bhaiya I’m facing this issue, I score on certain days, but can’t score on certain other days’."
“I learnt a lot from him, how to process things when you’re at the top, rather you should always be neutral no matter how you perform there’s a zone where you must be comfortable," he remarked.
The swashbuckling left-hander further said that even if he cannot emulate the heroics of Dhoni, he will try to help India win the ODI World Cup later this year.
“I was confident that even if I can’t become someone like Mahi bhai, I will try to help India win the World Cup," Ishan said.
“Off the field also I have learned a lot from his calmness, and the way he interacts with other people," he continued.
Ishan Kishan took the cricketing world by storm with his record-breaking 210 off 131 balls against Bangladesh in an ODI match last month. However, he was not included in India’s playing XI for the first ODI against Sri Lanka in Guwahati as the team management decided to give Shubman Gill a long rope.