Ishan Kishan spotted training with Pandya Brothers in Baroda, expected to return in IPL 2024

Ishan Kishan is out of cricketing action since he opted out of the Test series against South Africa citing personal reasons. He has not been in contention for the Indian team and head coach Rahul Dravid has asked him to play some sort of cricket to come into consideration for the Indian team.

Ishan Kishan last played for India in the T20I series against Australia which was played just after the conclusion of the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 and since then he hasn’t taken on a cricket field.

Ishan Kishan was a part of the Indian team in the World Cup, in the T20I series against Australia and the T20I series in South Africa but did not get enough game time after which he opted out of the Test series against South Africa.

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He recently has been spotted training with the Pandya brothers at the Kiran More Academy in Baroda. Hardik Pandya and Ishan Kishan will play for the same IPL franchise this season as Hardik is the newly appointed captain of Mumbai Indians.

Kiran More has confirmed that Ishan Kishan is practicing in his academy but he couldn’t disclose much as the former India wicketkeeper is currently in Mumbai with the Mumbai Indians Women’s Premier League (WPL) team.

Ishan Kishan has shown no inclination towards playing competitive cricket since he opted out of the Test series against South Africa despite Rahul Dravid’s remarks that he should play some form of cricket to be reconsidered for the national team.

Ishan Kishan will not be taking part in his domestic team Jharkhand’s next Ranji game against Haryana which begins on February 9. There are speculations about the impact of his absence on BCCI’s considerations for central contracts. Ishan Kishan is currently in Grade C of the central contract with 1 crore of annual retainership.

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Ishan Kishan Missed A Good Opportunity To Establish Himself As A Test Wicketkeeper

The southpaw had a great opportunity to become the first-choice wicketkeeper for India in Tests as KS Bharat is in terrible form. However, he is losing important game time which could have established him as a wicketkeeper-batter in the red-ball format for India. Ishan Kishan has only played two Test matches and both of them were against West Indies in July 2023 where he also scored a half-century in the second innings of the second Test.

Rahul Dravid when asked about Kishan’s chances said, “I just don’t want to go on laboring about the Ishan Kishan point. 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. We know what it is. He hasn’t yet started playing, right? At the moment, it’s not something that we would consider. He is maybe not ready. He decides when he wants to be ready.”

Ishan Kishan will most likely feature in the IPL 2024 for Mumbai Indians. He has been a part of the Mumbai-based franchise since 2018 when he was bought for 6.4 crores and then re-purchased for 15.25 crores during the 2022 auctions. He has been one of the best openers for MI since the departure of Quinton de Kock in 2022. Ishan Kishan is expected to open the batting with Rohit Sharma in the IPL 2024.

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