Bengal’s Ishan Porel was one of the bright stars to come out of India U19’s World Cup win in 2018. He was picked up by Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and will feature for the KL Rahul-led side in the upcoming IPL 2021.
Originally, Ishan was one of the four net bowlers announced by the BCCI to travel with the Indian team for the long tour of Australia last year, but the stint was unfortunately cut short due to a hamstring injury he sustained.
He is coming off a haul of 13 wickets from five matches for Bengal in the domestic T20 tournament and the best thing was his hamstring didn’t give way, which had probably cost him a spot in the Indian team on the Australia tour, where Shardul Thakur, T Natarajan, and Mohammed Siraj made their Test debuts.
"The hamstring is fine right now and it's holding up pretty well. I'm doing well. I've played the Vijay Hazare, the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and I've done well there so I'm pretty confident about my hamstring. My rehab at NCA was pretty well," Ishan told Hindustan Times in a chat.
Talking about the upcoming IPL 2021, Ishan Porel hopes of getting a game for the franchise, something that he didn’t get in the IPL 2020 edition when Mohammed Shami was the only fast bowler to play all matches.
“My only plan is to focus on this present IPL. Like I said, I am looking forward to taking up any challenge. Hopefully, things will fall in place if I do well. Anyone would want to represent the country, so performing at the right stage at the right time," Ishan said.
Talking about his dream wicket, Ishan Porel aspires to scalp India and Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli. Having faced Kohli in the nets ahead of the start of the Australia series, Ishan admitted he learnt abundantly from the experience of bowling to the India captain.
Ishan also called Kohli the best all-format batsman in the world and termed him as his dream wicket in IPL 2021.
"On a funnier side, I got KL bhai out in a Ranji Trophy match so I've ticked that box. And obviously, Rohit Sharma is great off fast bowling. He can hit those good-length balls with ease.
Obviously, picking those wickets would be a dream-come-true for me because I've seen them win matches for India while growing up. But yes, I would like to take the wicket of Virat Kohli because he is the No. 1 batsman in all three formats,” he said.
“I was in Australia for 10 days, where I bowled a lot. It was a learning experience because bowling to such great and quality batsmen of the calibre of Virat bhai, KL bhai – although I had bowled to him earlier during the Punjab Kings nets – bowling to them and Rohit Sharma, was a huge lesson. The mindset, the thinking, and the execution part needs to be bang on target,” he added.
(Hindustan Times inputs)
