T20 World Cup: Prodigal son Ishan Kishan’s return to squad turns heads

The return of the prodigal son would be an apt headline to describe Ishan Kishan’s case, the wicketkeeper-batter who finds himself back in favour with the Indian think tank after exactly two years. Snubbed for long for his so-called attitude problems, the 27-year-old finally got rewarded for leading Jharkhand to their Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) success only two days earlier with a berth in the 15-member squad for the T20 World Cup at home in February-March.

The Men in Blue will be defending the title they won under Rohit Sharma one and-a-half years back in the Caribbean under the leadership of Suryakumar Yadav as Ajit Agarkar & Co were forced to take a few tough calls at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai. If SKY was fortunate enough to retain the hot seat despite a poor run with the bat in recent times, his deputy Shubman Gill was not as lucky – being dropped in a shocker after being elevated to vice-captaincy few months back ahead of the T20 Asia Cup.

The step could be seen as a course correction of sorts by the powers that-be, who seemed in an undue hurry to groom Gill as the potential leader of all three formats. The decision to drop the Test and ODI captain Gill from the T20 set-up may seem harsh, but it was clear that the pressure of playing all formats had been telling on the graceful batter – while his tryst with the freakish injury during the recent Test series against the Proteas didn’t help.

However, the headline-grabber for the afternoon was surely Ishan’s return to the fold. There is no doubt that his form with the bat in SMAT, where he plundered 517 runs in just 10 innings at 57.32 and a strike rate of 197.32 could not have come at a better time, there were major doubts as to whether Agarkar and the authoritarian Gautam Gambhir would be ready to ready to give him one more chance.

Speaking to the media after a match-winning 101 (off 49 balls) against Haryana in SMAT final, it seemed Ishan had been backing his chances. ‘’It’s important that you don’t allow frustration to get to you. This is my message to all the youngsters: frustration is something that will take you one step down. At the same time, you need to put in a lot of hard work, believe in yourself and just focus on what you need to achieve,’’ said Ishan, whose name was struck off the BCCI central contracts list in 2024 for not complying with the directive of former coach Rahul Dravid of playing domestic cricket to make an international comeback.

It was a curious case of Ishan, who wanted to be excused of a South Africa tour due to ‘mental fatigue’ but was later found to be holidaying abroad as well as participating in a TV reality show. He snubbed the establishment by not responding to his state association’s call to play the Ranji Trophy and eventually made his comeback in IPL 2024 season with Mumbai Indians. A technically adept wicketkeeper who is better equipped to keep to spinners at home and a 360 degrees strokemaker, it’s a heartening sight to see him back – albeit at the expense of Jitesh Sharma.

In another major decision, Axar Patel, often an unsung hero of India’s recent invincible run in this format, has been re-installed as the vice-captain while the decision of inducting finisher Rinku Singh is also a welcome step.

Ahead of their title-defence, India will face New Zealand for three ODIs and five T20Is. The T20I series will be played from 21 January 21 to 31 January in preparation for the marquee event. The squad for the three ODIs, which will be played from January 11 to January 18, will be announced at a later date.

India Squad: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Axar Patel (vc), Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Harshit Rana, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Rinku Singh.