"Fashion mein lag gaya tha" - Ishan Kishan brutally mocked by ex-Pakistan star over his absence from Team India

Former Pakistan cricketer Basit Ali has opened up on wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan's continued absence from the Indian team. Ishan Kishan was a part of India's white-ball squads till last year. He was even a part of the Indian team that reached the final of the ODI World Cup 2023.

But Kishan fell down the pecking order ever since he took a break during India's tour of South Africa last year. Kishan, who was about to be selected in India's Test squad for the two-match Test series against South Africa, asked for a break just before the Test series due to mental fatigue.

In February 2024, Ishan Kishan suffered another blow when he was removed from BCCI's annual central contracts list. The wicketkeeper-batter was told by the selectors to take part in the Ranji Trophy season but instead, he was found to be training with Hardik Pandya for the IPL 2024 season, which prompted the selectors to remove him from the contracts list.

Also read: 'Gautam Gambhir has not asked me to...' - Ravi Bishnoi's huge revelation on working with India head coach

Basit Ali breaks silence on Ishan Kishan's absence from Indian team

While speaking on his YouTube channel, Basit Ali spoke about Ishan Kishan and reckoned that he got into fashion a little bit which resulted in his omission from the Indian team.

"Ishan Kishan has fallen down the pecking order. Woh bhi thoda sa fashion mein lag gaya tha (He too got into fashion a bit)," said Basit Ali.

After missing the Ranji Trophy, Kishan played for Mumbai Indians in IPL 2024 where he had a middling performance with 360 runs in 14 innings at an average of 22.85 and a strike rate of 148.84. He scored just one fifty in the whole IPL season.

Sri Lanka did not deserve to be in Champions Trophy 2025: Basit Ali

Meanwhile, Basit Ali also slammed the Sri Lankan team for their poor performance in the first two T20Is against India. Ali claimed that Sri Lanka did not deserve to qualify for the upcoming Champions Trophy. He even advised the Sri Lankan men's team to learn from their women's team.

"Sri Lanka deserved to not qualify for the Champions Trophy. It seems as if they are also more concerned about maintaining friendships, just as we have seen in the Pakistan team. My personal opinion is that their women's team have performed better. Sri Lanka's men's team should learn from the women's team how to keep the belief," Ali said.

Sri Lanka women's team created history on July 28 (Sunday) by winning the Women's Asia Cup 2024 title for the first time ever. Sri Lanka Women defeated a strong India Women's team in the final by 8 wickets to cause a huge upset.

But their men's team failed to live up to the expectations as they lost a second successive match to India. Just like the first T20I, Sri Lanka surrendered a position of strength to lose 7 wickets for 31 runs. Sri Lanka scored a below-par 161-9 in 20 overs.

India were given a revised target of 78 runs from 8 overs, which they chased down with 9 balls to spare. Yashasvi Jaiswal, Hardik Pandya, and skipper Suryakumar Yadav played blistering cameos to take India over the line.