Ishan Kishan | IANS

Before arriving into this season of the Indian Premier League, young Mumbai Indians' left-hander Ishan Kishan had a fantastic Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament. He struck two back-to-back hundreds against Jammu & Kashmir and Manipur while playing for his state team Jharkhand. 

But Ishan had to wait till Mumbai's fifth match to get a spot in the playing XI as the three-time champions led by Rohit Sharma preferred veteran India cricketer Yuvraj Singh ahead of him. Kishan finally got his opportunity in the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad last Saturday (April 6). 

"We have a lot of good players in our team," he said at the pre-match press conference before the game versus Kings XI Punjab on Wednesday (April 10).  

"We all know that we have to be on our toes and ready to perform when we get the opportunity. Yuvraj is a big player and replacing him comes with huge responsibility. That pressure also teaches me a lot."

"There is so much competitive cricket going on, the main focus is on keeping fitness and form up. I kept talking to coaches like Zak (Zaheer Khan) and he told me to keep practising and be ready for any opportunity."

Meanwhile, Alzarri Joseph, the West Indies pacer, had a stellar IPL debut in Mumbai Indians' last encounter. Alzarri inflicted record match-figures of 6/12 versus SRH to help his team win the match by a margin of 40 runs. The away team was only defending 137 runs in Hyderabad.

Now, when asked about him, Kishan also lavished rich praise over his teammate and said, "In the U-19 he bowled really well and won them the final. Alzarri is bowling with great rhythm and bowled a great spell in the last match." 

"He remains calm through ups and downs as well, has improved his line and length and reads batsmen very well now. He gets good bounce because of his height which makes it really tough for the batsmen."

(Inputs from CricketNext)