CHENNAI: Just moments after Mumbai Indians suffered a comprehensive defeat to Royal Challengers Bangalore on Sunday, Virat Kohli put an arm around Ishan Kishan’s shoulder. He then offered a few consoling words to the sobbing youngster with the gaze of the prying television cameras for company.
Kishan had cut a disconsolate figure for a majority of Mumbai’s innings that day, following another low score with the bat. He, perhaps, knew what was coming: an exclusion from the playing XI for Mumbai’s encounter against Punjab Kings on Tuesday.
Since the resumption of the IPL in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the 23-year-old has been having his travails in a below-par middle-order that is searching desperately for runs and confidence. Scores of 11, 14 and 9 from Kishan’s blade have been underwhelming of course, and such returns tend to go unpunished only when your team is winning. That luxury isn’t available to Mumbai at the moment, given that they have won just one game since landing in the Middle East. The rest of the middle-order – comprising Suryakumar Yadav, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya and Hardik Pandya — isn’t exactly coming up with earth-shattering performances either, but the axe was always likely to fall on the Jharkhand left-hander first. In eight matches this IPL, which includes the India leg, he is averaging a paltry 13.37 with just 107 runs in eight games. It is pertinent to note that Kishan was dropped after the first five games in India too.
While a few games without runs need not necessarily be judged harshly, the upcoming T20 World Cup – with Kishan part of the 15-member India squad — dictates the current situation. In a team where there is no dearth of competition for places, it is perhaps inevitable that every innings will be viewed with a microscopic lens. While the squad was announced on September 8, the International Cricket Council (ICC) allows for further changes to be made until October 10. The changes need not be necessitated by injuries only, with selectors allowed to revise their assessments qualitatively.
It is understood that the Indian selectors don’t deem it necessary to make any changes, but the possibility of another contender making a strong case in the coming days is likely to keep Kishan on tenterhooks. The southpaw must be even more frustrated by his present run considering the purple patch that he had hit in the UAE last season. Having not started the season as first choice, he forced his way into the team and made one of the middle-order spots his own by sheer weight of runs — ending the campaign as the fifth highest run-getter with 516 runs at an average of 57.33.
What Kishan’s dropping has done is also give a gentle nudge to Suryakumar. The 31-year-old is averaging 17.18 this season and must be looking over his shoulder at the present moment. On Tuesday, he worryingly fell for a first-ball duck, bamboozled by a Ravi Bishnoi googly. Such a build-up is far from ideal for India’s lofty aspirations at the T20 World Cup. Both Surya and Ishan are considered X-factors in the shortest format and allow India to have the kind of free-flowing approach that they desperately need to match up to the likes of England and West Indies. With a few games still left in the IPL, Kohli & Co will be casting a keen eye on how Surya and Ishan fare.