Ishan Kishan reaffirmed his strong commitment and love for red-ball cricket despite his limited appearances in the format.

The wicketkeeper-batter has represented India in 32 ODIs and 55 T20Is. His last of two Test appearances came in July 2023.

Kishan is currently plying his trade in the Duleep Trophy – a domestic red-ball tournament. He led East Zone to a thumping innings and 210-run victory over North East Zone in the first quarterfinal at the BCCI Centre of Excellence Ground 2 in Bengaluru.

"I enjoy red-ball [cricket] very much. I think people don't believe me when I say that, but it's, I'm being very honest, I really do enjoy red-ball cricket," Kishan told Cricinfo.

"It's always fun to be part of it because I love that challenge when, you know, yes, it's easier to bat on flat tracks and it's fun as well, but the competition which goes around in Test match[es] is some different-level thing," he added.

The game marked Kishan’s 65th first-class appearance. His previous first-class outing was the Ranji Trophy match against Baroda in November 2025. In between, he featured in 59 games across international and domestic cricket.

The southpaw admitted that moving between white-ball and red-ball cricket creates tricky situations and requires constant adjustments to gameplay.

"Situations will get tricky. It will not be easy for us as players to just move around from white ball to red ball, red ball to white ball; change of format, change of gameplay, but that is the fun part about this game," Kishan said.

He highlighted the pressure and challenges that athletes deal with away from the field. "You need to understand, as a sportsman, life can be harsh on us. It just looks very simple, like [a] player just comes here, plays their matches, and they leave. It's not like that. They go around, they keep on thinking, there's so much going on in their head every time."

However, Kishan believes success requires focusing on personal improvement rather than complaining about uncontrollable factors.

"If you want to make it big," Kishan said, "you want to make it count, you can't have many excuses. But at the same time, I feel you should just think about getting better and not cry about things which you cannot control."

Ishan Kishan managed to score only four runs in the Duleep Trophy fixture. He threw his wicket away early by reaching for a wide delivery.

Reflecting on his dismissal, the left-hander said: "I was in the middle of the shot, and I was like 'what the heck I was trying to do!' I should know this is [a] Test [first-class] match and I need to leave a few balls. So I was thinking like that, but when you don't practice so much, especially when the red ball is there [things can happen]."

He further remarked: "Sometimes when you think about something that you don't want to do, you end up doing it. I did not want to go to the ball and just play. So I ended up doing the same thing because I was thinking like I don't want to do it. I was just attracting those thoughts, which was not meant to happen, but yeah [it happened anyway]."

Despite the dominating victory, Kishan noted that the team's on-field energy was not up to the mark after a long gap between red-ball matches. The team will next face Central Zone in the semi-final, slated to begin on August 30.

"We played after a very long time, this match, but I feel the energy was not up to the mark," Kishan said, "but it can happen in these matches.

"When we are going to play the next match, we'll have to be on our toes. We'll have to put effort, we [will] have to fight for each and every wicket. So, we'll look into it. We'll talk, we'll have a meeting, and we'll try and put up a good show in the next game."