‘He respected the game’: R Ashwin explains how Ishan Kishan earned his T20 World Cup recall | Cricket News

Ishan Kishan’s road back to India’s T20 World Cup squad has been long and uncomfortable. Pushed out of the national setup in 2023 and left on the sidelines for months, Kishan has now forced his way back into contention with performances that were impossible to overlook. His return has been powered by a dominant Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy campaign. Leading Jharkhand, Kishan guided the side to its first-ever title in the tournament. He finished as the leading run-scorer with 517 runs from 10 matches at a strike rate of 197, underlining his impact with a match-winning 101 off 49 balls in the final against Haryana.

The numbers alone made a strong case, but the bigger story was the path Kishan chose. Speaking on his YouTube channel, Ravichandran Ashwin framed the comeback as something earned, not gifted. “Cricket has given Ishan Kishan a gift,” Ashwin said. “People on the outside can guess whether it was fair or unfair, but life comes back in a circle. The reason Ishan was not in the side and why he is in the team now is because of one thing: he gave cricket the respect it deserves.” Ashwin explained that Kishan never viewed domestic cricket as a step down, but as the only way back. “In first class, he even came to play the Buchi Babu Invitational,” Ashwin said. “A player like Ishan Kishan came to play the Buchi Babu tournament in Chennai for Jharkhand.” From there, Kishan stayed involved throughout Jharkhand’s Ranji Trophy preparations and delivered when opportunities came. “He was there for Jharkhand, he was number one in preparation, and in first-class cricket he scored runs,” Ashwin said. “In the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, he led Jharkhand and performed. It is because of this.” Addressing the debate around Kishan’s removal from the team and contracts in 2023, Ashwin dismissed the idea that off-field factors played a role in his return. “It is not about Ishan Kishan the person,” Ashwin said. “It is about Ishan Kishan the cricketer who went through the yards of the game, respected the game, and hence succeeded.”