Ishan will bat at No. 3 – Suryakumar Yadav ahead of India’s first T20I against New Zealand
Team India had to make a late adjustment to their T20I squad against New Zealand with Tilak Varma ruled out due to injury.
They brought in Ishan Kishan, who impressed heavily in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, as a replacement. With 517 runs from 10 innings, Ishan dished out a terrific performance in India’s premier T20 competition in the domestic circuit.
Talking in the pre-match presser, India captain Suryakumar Yadav opened up on how the Men in Blue are planning to use Ishan Kishan in the line up. He highlighted how Kishan has been in sublime form and the position that he will batting in.
SKY said, “Ishan will bat at No. 3, since he is in our World Cup team, and we picked him first, so it's his responsibility and his turn to play, and he's not played for India for a long time. He's been doing well in domestic cricket, and he's not played for the Indian team for a year or year-and-a-half, and since we've picked him in the World Cup squad, I feel he deserves to play. If it was a question of No. 4 or 5, we may have thought differently, but unfortunately Tilak isn't there, and I think Ishan is the best bet at No. 3."
Ishan hasn’t been a part of the Indian squad since November 2023. From the 32 T20Is, Ishan Kishan has racked up 796 runs so far at an average of 25.67 while scoring them at a strike rate of 124.37. Out of the 32 innings that he has batted in, only one of them has come outside the top three.
