Mumbai Indians’ young batsman Ishan Kishan said support from India captain Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard helped him get back among the runs after he had lost his place in the playing XI.
Kishan was called back into the team for the must-win match against Rajasthan Royals and he responded in fine style in Sharjah on Tuesday. Opening the innings in place of Quinton de Kock, the left-hander smashed an unbeaten 50 from 25 balls, to power Mumbai Indians to an emphatic eight-wicket victory, to boost their hopes of making it to the IPL play-offs.
Kishan revealed he got support from Royal Challengers skipper Kohli and Mumbai Indians’ senior duo Hardik and Pollard, which helped him get back to form.
“Most of the batters were not getting runs like previous seasons. We had great support staff. Our captain (Rohit Sharma)… in fact I had a chat with Virat bhai, Hardik bhai.. everyone was there to support me. I had a chat with KP (Pollard) who said you just need to keep things simple, bat the way you used to do, just watch the videos of what you did in the last season. I watched a few videos of my batting and that gave me a bit of confidence,” Kishan said after the match against Royals.
“It’s nice to be back opening and getting runs for the team and helping win by a big margin. Feeling really good, was much needed for our team to get momentum. It was good to field first, got a good idea of the surface.”
“Our plan was to play as straight as possible. Just play in the V was the plan and the batsmen executed really well. I feel ups and downs are a big part of any sportsman. I was also not in good shape,” he added.
Mumbai Indians rose to fifth in the IPL standings with 12 points from 13 games the same points as Kolkata Knight Riders.
“There is talk of us wanting KKR to lose the next game and us winning our next game (smiles), but that is way ahead now. We just have to prepare for our next game. Need to play with the same energy today. Looking forward to doing this again in the next game,” said Kishan.
