When the BCCI senior men’s selection committee announced India’s squad for the T20 World Cup 2026 on Saturday (December 20), there was a notable inclusion in it.
Ishan Kishan earned a surprise call-up to the 15-member group after leading Jharkhand to their maiden Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 title. The southpaw finished the SMAT 2025/26 as the leading run-getter (517 runs), strengthening his case as a top-order option who also adds flexibility behind the stumps.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin said that Kishan's T20 World Cup selection is a result of his domestic grind, from Buchi Babu to SMAT, calling it a full-circle moment earned through discipline and respect for the game.
Ishan Kishan hogged the headlines last year after not being included in the BCCI central contracts list. He reportedly lost the annual contracts on disciplinary grounds and for failing to adhere to the board's mandate of playing domestic cricket when not on national duty.
Notably, the wicketkeeper-batter had withdrawn from the Test series in South Africa in December 2023, citing personal reasons. Since then, he has been away from the national setup across formats.
But of late, the left-hander has been active on the domestic scene, taking part in three games during the Ranji Trophy and playing a key role in Jharkhand’s triumphant SMAT campaign, which resulted in a call-up to the national side.
"Cricket has given Ishan Kishan a gift. People on the outside can have a guess on whether it was fair, unfair, and all, but life comes back in a circle. The reason Ishan (Kishan) was not on the side, and why he is in the team now, is because of one thing. He gave cricket the respect it deserves," Ashwin said.
"In first class, he even came to play in the Buchi Babu Invitational. A player like Ishan Kishan came in to play the Buchi Babu tournament in Chennai for Jharkhand. From there, he was there for Jharkhand in their preparation for the Ranji Trophy, where he was number one. And in first-class cricket, he came in and scored runs. In the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, he led Jharkhand and even performed well. It is because of this," he added.
Ashwin reckons there is serious growth for Ishan Kishan as a cricketer who has now learnt to respect the game.
"It is not about Ishan Kishan the person; it is about Ishan Kishan the cricketer who went through the yards of the game, respected the game, and hence succeeded. In mathematics, we say LHS equals RHS; you must have heard it, it is basic mathematics. This is why he went through the ropes in domestic cricket, which is LHS, which equals RHS, which is selection. It is very simple," he remarked.
India's squad for T20 World Cup 2026: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel (vc), Rinku Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Washington Sundar, Ishan Kishan (wk)
