3 worrying aspects about Ishan Kishan's batting
A big cause of concern for India in their ongoing white-ball leg at home has been the form of Ishan Kishan. The dashing wicketkeeper-batter from Jharkhand grabbed eyeballs with a blistering double-hundred in an ODI against Bangladesh in December 2022.
Since then, however, he hasn't looked his best self with the bat. Shubman Gill was preferred over the southpaw to open alongside skipper Rohit Sharma in the ODI format and with the former grabbing his chances with both hands, it seems like Kishan will have to wait for a consistent run.
Having said that, his returns in T20 cricket haven't been too promising either in recent times. His numbers paint a worrying picture, as an average of 25.66 and a strike rate of 121.12 in T20Is since the start of 2022 indicates.
A few aspects of Kishan's game have come to the fore, which clearly points out that there is some work to be done at the international level. Let's take a look at three such worrying aspects of his game at this point:
#1 Lack of strike rotation
It is quite evident that Kishan tends to play out too many dot deliveries. Given that he opens the batting on most days, this has a direct impact on India's ability to cash in on the powerplay.
While he does possess a fearsome ball-striking ability to make up for it, this flaw is bound to backfire on days when he doesn't. In the second T20I against New Zealand, he never looked set en route to a painstaking 32-ball 19, which included as many as 21 dot balls.
So far in his ODI career, 246 of the 473 deliveries faced by him have been dot balls, amounting to a dot ball percentage of 52. In T20Is, the corresponding number is 46.50 percent, having not scored off 246 of the 529 deliveries he has faced.
Clearly, this is a big area of concern for Kishan and India and something he will have to work out soon.
#2 Kishan seems caught on the crease while batting
Ishan Kishan doesn't seem to have a great backfoot game against spin. He lunges and commits fully forward unless the ball is a long hop and a lot of his forward defensive strokes/judges hit the splice of his bat. Wouldn't trust him in Tests with all the close in fielders around.
While batters who tend to get caught on the crease seem to do so on the back foot, it's a curious case with Kishan. The southpaw tends to come forward and yet, he seems to be rooted to the crease without being able to break free.
On a spinning track where quality tweakers attack the stumps and manage to generate quick turn, he has very little reaction time. That only complicates matters for him, reflected in his high dot-ball percentage, while bowling an off-spinner to get it to turn away from him is slowly becoming an obvious tactic deployed by the opposition.
Against hard-length bowling on the stump line, he has had his difficulties surface against tearaway quicks, with Lockie Ferguson squaring him up in the third ODI in Indore coming to mind instantly. This technical chink is something teams have clearly taken note of and it reflects in the way they bowl to the wicket-keeper batter.
#3 Issues surrounding his confidence
This could be debated, but it does feel that confidence plays a big part in Kishan's returns. Of course, one can argue that it pours when it rains and when things go wrong, it all goes wrong at the same time.
Yet, there have been a couple of instances in IPL seasons gone by as well that reflect the same. After striking a rich vein of form in IPL 2020, he ended the season with the most hits over the fence. A failure to replicate that season the following year, after he had debuted for India as well, saw his struggles multiply.
In fact, the T20I series against South Africa in June 2022 was a decent reflection of the same. While he wasn't at his fluent best, he still scored a decent chunk of runs throughout the series and got India off to a quick-fire start.
It works both ways, of course - once Kishan gets runs on a consistent basis, it is bound to boost his confidence and vice versa. India will hope that it comes in the third T20I against New Zealand in Ahmedabad to set things up ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and the endeavors ahead.
Can Ishan Kishan strike form when India take on New Zealand in the 3rd T20I in Ahmedabad? Let us know in the comments section below!
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