This time two years back, Ishan Kishan’s international career was at a crossroads. Despite having done precious little wrong, the little wicketkeeper-batter was out of favour in each of the three formats when it came to the playing XI on the long tour of South Africa in 2023-24.

While his Twenty20 International career wasn’t quite extraordinary, he boasted an average of 78 (admittedly in only two games) in Test cricket and was one of the few batters worldwide to have cracked an ODI double-century. Having acquitted himself with credit on his Test debut in the Caribbean in July 2023, he would realistically have expected to don the big gloves during the two Tests in South Africa, what with Rishabh Pant still recovering from his horrific car accident of the previous December and K.S. Bharat not grabbing his chances against Australia at the beginning of 2023.

Jitesh Sharma was the preferred stumper for the T20I series in early December in the land of the Protea while K.L. Rahul slotted in as the ODI keeper, a role he had performed with aplomb for most of the World Cup in October-November. Kishan’s chance lay with the Test side, but given that a plethora of top-order batters – Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer – were on their first Test tour of South Africa, the think-tank decided to employ Rahul at No. 6, doubling up as a specialist wicketkeeper in Tests for the first time.

Mental fatigue

It all became too much for Kishan; on December 17, a little over a week before the start of the Boxing Day Test in Centurion, Kishan requested the Board of Control for Cricket in India to be released from the Test squad for ‘personal reasons.’ It appears he informed the team management that he was experiencing ‘mental fatigue’ and needed a break from the sport due to continuous travel and limited playing opportunities across formats.

So far so good. Having cited mental fatigue, Kishan continued to train with an eye on IPL 2024, stubbornly and stupidly disregarding a directive from the BCCI and skipping playing for Jharkhand in the Ranji Trophy. It wasn’t taken kindly; while there was sympathy for Kishan because he wasn’t able to break into the national side, his obstinate refusal to obey the board diktat was met with disapproval. The powers that be were so incensed that they left him out of the list of centrally contracted players for the 2023-24 season.

The unsavoury situation could have been avoided, one felt, had there been clearer lines of communication between the leadership group (captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid) and Kishan. After all, the player was only 25 at the time and his frustration was understandable. One isn’t sure what the messaging was, but as he continued to ignore orders to play domestic cricket, sympathy gradually dried up.

Kishan returned to action at IPL 2024, seemingly chastened and having learnt his lessons the hard way. He knew he had lost ground in the race to the Indian side. The doors hadn’t been comprehensively shut on him, but they weren’t ajar either. He had to knock hard and furiously through the weight of impactful runs at the domestic level to reiterate his claims. In his absence and with Pant still on the rehabilitation path, Dhruv Jurel had stolen a march in Test cricket while Sanju Samson and Jitesh had become the preferred T20 flavours and Rahul continued to make the 50-over spot his own. To say that Kishan had his work cut out was stating the obvious.

That Kishan had served his punishment was evident from his inclusion, in Grade C, in the list of centrally contracted players for the 2024-25 season released in April. There was light at the end of the tunnel. It didn’t mean Kishan had a free pass, but he was in the mix, and that is more than what he could have hoped for 12 months previously.

By then, the explosive batter had moved to Sunrisers Hyderabad ahead of IPL 2025. In the Pat Cummins-Daniel Vettori leadership era, the 2016 champions had embraced an ultra-aggressive approach, bolstered by the presence of such unabashed ball-bashers as Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Heinrich Klaasen, Nitish Kumar and Abhinav Manohar. Kishan was right at home. On his SRH debut at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Uppal, he immediately endeared himself to the home faithfuls with a spectacular 106 (47b, 11×4, 6×6) against Rajasthan Royals while batting at No. 3. Among those who felt the full brunt of his fury was Jofra Archer, the tearaway England bowler whose four overs leaked 76 as SRH amassed 286 for six. Kishan and SRH seemed a match made in heaven though it didn’t quite pan out that way. Kishan ended the season with 354 runs in 14 matches, average 35.40, strike-rate 152.58. Good numbers, undoubtedly, but in his next 12 innings after that hundred on his first appearance, he managed just a solitary half-century as his side finished sixth, and that only because of a late surge after elimination had been guaranteed.

But all through the IPL, Kishan showed that he had lost none of the flair and aggression that had taken him to 210, off just 131 deliveries (24×4, 10×6), in an ODI against Bangladesh in Chattogram in December 2022. He was still the same dynamic package, but had become more dangerous because he had gone from a borderline slogger to a more complete batter who didn’t lose shape in trying to hit the cover off the ball, who didn’t premeditate and charge wildly, and whose stroke-making all around the ground was beginning to manifest itself. A return to the Indian side was still some distance away – why, even Pant, who was a key member of the T20 World Cup-winning XI of June 2024 was no longer in the 20-over running – but Kishan knew, like chief selector Ajit Agarkar, T20I skipper Suryakumar Yadav and head coach Gautam Gambhir, that he had done everything he could to stay relevant and in the reckoning.

A recall remained elusive with India placing their 20-over eggs in the Samson-Jitesh basket. Then, out of the blue, so to speak, the decision-makers brought Gill back into the T20 setup after 13 months in hibernation at the Asia Cup this September, inadvertently setting off a chain of events culminating in the unexpected return of Kishan. Not just a return, but also a shot at World Cup glory, after the 27-year-old was also picked in the 15-strong party tasked with defending the title at home in February-March.

Gill’s comeback, as Suryakumar’s deputy, had forced a batting order reshuffle. Samson was in the process of forging a lethal opening combination with Abhishek – in five innings between October 12 and November 15 last year, the right-hander from Kerala slammed three international centuries as well – when he was pushed down the order to accommodate Gill. Samson expectedly struggled in the middle-order and eventually lost his place to Jitesh, and it appeared as if India had shot themselves in the foot, especially with Gill failing repeatedly to justify his inclusion.

On a scoring spree

Independent of all this, Kishan embarked on a furious run-making spree in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 tournament in November-December. After warming up with 27 against Delhi in the first Group D tie in Ahmedabad, he produced scores of 15, 113 n.o., 93, 21, 2, 47, 63, 35 and 101, the last against Haryana in the final. Riding on the captain’s 49-ball carnage that contained six fours and 10 sixes, Jharkhand amassed 262 to bat their opponents out of the title clash and emerge first-time champions.

Kishan’s breathtaking run of scores, all conjured at breakneck speed, coincided with a change of mind (heart?) as the primary deciding authorities made a dramatic Gill U-turn. All of a sudden, with just five matches (against New Zealand) left for the World Cup, they decided that the ideal combination for the big bash would necessitate a wicketkeeper opening the batting alongside Abhishek. What led to this sudden dawning of wisdom is anyone’s guess; the consensus is that they were letting Gill down gently, but because of the insistence that only a stumper would open, they had to perforce move beyond Jitesh who, it must be said, help up his end of the middle-order/finisher bargain for the most part.

Samson suddenly re-emerged as the first-choice wicketkeeper and Kishan became the beneficiary of the altered mindset of the leadership group. For all practical purposes, he is the reserve wicketkeeper for the World Cup (and for the five matches against the Kiwis next month) behind the senior pro from Kerala, though by having gone on record that a left-right combination is overrated, Suryakumar has left the door open for Kishan too to slot into the XI at some stage if the need so arises. Those who construe Kishan’s return as through the backdoor must keep in mind that he hasn’t ‘sneaked’ back into the Indian side but has made a compelling case for himself with the weight of his performances. Just to show that the national call-up has done little to blunt his instincts and his hunger for runs, Kishan smashed an extraordinary 125 against Karnataka in the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy in Ahmedabad on Wednesday. Extraordinary, because he only came out to bat at No. 6 after 38 overs, blazing to 50 in 20 deliveries and taking just 13 more to go from 50 to 100. His second fifty contained a scarcely believable two fours and seven sixes, all 50 runs coming in boundaries. Really, what’s this pocket rocket made of? Even when he was on the outer, looking for a way back into the inner circle, Kishan retained his cheerful demeanour, ever the prankster blessed with the rare ability to mimic others without riling them. Freed up in the mind and more driven than he has ever been, Kishan will be chomping at the bit, hoping for a chance to light up the international scene again. Kishan has already smashed 511 sixes in 395 representative matches. Hard hats in the stands will not be a bad idea.