Ishan Kishan makes a return to competitive cricket in the DY Patil tournament

The long wait to see Ishan Kishan playing cricket has finally ended. The keeper-batter has made a return to the game as was seen playing on Tuesday (February 27) for RBI in their match against Route Mobile Limited at the DY Patil University Grounds in Navi Mumbai.

Ishan Kishan was seen donning the keeping gloves for RBI, who were asked to field first in the game. The keeper-batter is part of the team alongside the likes of Shahbaz Nadeem, Amit Mishra, Ankit Rajpoot, Dhruv Shorey and Riyan Parag, who all seem to be preparing for the IPL 2024.

Ishan Kishan has been out of action for more than 3 months. The batter last played in the T20I series against Australia after  ICC World Cup 2023. He was part of the Indian team for the South Africa T20Is but didn’t get to play as the team preferred Jitesh Sharma.

Ishan Kishan was also part of the Test series against South Africa but he opted out of the series, citing personal reasons. The keeper-batter since then has been out of action and there has been no clarity about his future with the Indian team in all the formats.

Ishan Kishan was asked by the Indian team management, especially head coach Rahul Dravid to play some competitive cricket before returning to the team. However, the keeper-batter didn’t pay heed to the demands and didn’t feature in the Ranji Trophy for his state team. But was seen preparing for IPL with the Pandya brothers.

“There is a way back for anyone and everyone. It’s not that we rule out anybody from anything Again, I just don’t want to go on labouring about the Ishan Kishan point. I have tried to explain this as best as I can. He had requested a break, we were happy to give him a break.

“Whenever he is ready, I didn’t say he has to play domestic cricket, I said whenever he is ready… he needs to play some cricket and come back. The choice is his. We are not forcing him to do anything. We are in touch with him.” Rahul Dravid had said of Ishan Kishan

Ishan Kishan likely to miss out on BCCI’s annual contract

BCCI secretary Jay Shah recently gave a stern warning to contracted and India A cricketers that not participating in the ongoing Ranji Trophy will not be tolerated. However, despite that Ishan Kishan didn’t play for Jharkhand and the governing body reportedly is unhappy with him.

There have been reports which suggested that BCCI will be terminating him from the national contract. Skipper Rohit Sharma also indirectly took a jibe, saying that people who don’t have the hunger to play Test cricket won’t be picked for the team.

Ishan Kishan will now be seen in action in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. He is expected to play a crucial role for Mumbai Indians (MI) at the top order. The tournament will be extremely crucial for the keeper-batter because he will be looking to forge his way back into the Indian team.