After Mumbai Indians brought in a certain Ishan Kishan within their squad for a record amount during the auctions ahead of this season of the IPL, it was certain that he would be the player to watch out for in everyone’s book. The hard-hitting batsman however hasn’t really been able to make any justice to his high price tag so far and is currently suffering from an extremely poor form. The runs seemed to have all dried up and his team to hasn’t been able to achieve anything this season so as to cover up the gaps left by him. With a string of low scores and his team absolutely shattered by the array of losses it has suffered so far this season, it seems all downhill for a 23-year-old Ishan Kishan until now.
An 18-year-old Ishan Kishan was closely anticipated by several experts when he set his foot into the Indian Premier League for the first time. 2016. Everybody was pretty much keen to know about the youngster when his name was been called in the auction room. Fortunately, the youngster got an opportunity to feature in the most prestigious T20 league in the world thanks to Gujarat Lions who bid for him and included him in their squad. It was however in IPL 2017 when the youngster got a maiden chance to hit the pitch wearing his team’s jersey.
He put on a formidable performance in his debut season and scored 277 runs with one 50+ and four 30+ scores in the 11 matches he got to bat in. This was enough to draw the attraction of perhaps the most decorated franchise of the IPL – the Mumbai Indians towards him. The franchise didn’t hesitate to make him a part of their side from 2018 onwards and the batsman also stood up to his worth right away on several occasions.
The young wicketkeeper batsman’s highly counter-attacking batting with a fantastic attacking approach made him highly useful for his side no matter what position he came out to bat on. He was a regular part of the team and had major contributions in winning them the title in 2019 and 2020. His performances in the 2020 season in particular took everyone by surprise and lead to a huge enhancement in his status overnights. His stats that season for Mumbai were:
Matches Runs 50s
14 516 4
With his magical numbers in IPL 2020, Ishan Kishan had a great contribution in winning his side the Trophy that season. Ishan was the team’s highest run-scorer and also won the highest sixes award for hitting 30 sixes throughout the season, the most from any player. Things looked to be moving smoothly for a 22-year-old Kishan as he went on to wear the Mumbai jersey next year too and kept delivering important performances often. He however couldn’t replicate the similar dominance as Mumbai failed to finish to 4.
Despite there being a dip in his form as compared to the previous seasons, the team management has enough faith in him as they did the impossible by paying a mammoth 15.25 crores for him during the IPL mega auction ahead of the IPL 2022. The team management seemed extremely keen to have the young explosive batsman back into their side thereby reuniting him with their batting lineup with the hope of watching him touch new heights in the following IPL season. The opener made a cracking start to the season with a fantastic 81 run innings in the first match vs Delhi. In the second match he played a pretty good hand with the bat Things however haven’t turned out to be sweet for the left-hander since then as the bid made by his team for him possibly has had a monopoly over his mind.
Majority of the occasions the batsman has seemed to be in severe restrictions more often and has failed to find his rhythm at any point. The pressure of proving his worth and paying back every penny of the amount his team invested in him during the action with his performances on the pitch clearly is visible on his face when he comes out to bat under immense pressure. His extremely rusty strokes and poor intent, while his team is chasing high totals or facing a stiff situation from the opposition bowlers, has been a great concern for his team and management. The unnatural expectations that the Mumbai Indians management made from him have now ended up in total tatters as the batsman has totally seemed to lose his rhythm with the bat.
All the money that they invested on the young batsman expecting him to carry the team to glory all by himself hasn’t paid off at all and in turn, been miserably hurting the team. It was expected that the flamboyant batting style of Kishan would provide the team with flying starts in every match. Instead, his weird struggles to even rotate the strike and score big shots have been extremely disappointing. The batting order seems unstable and Ishan’s going out early every match doesn’t bring in a solution to the team’s woes either anytime.
His low strike rate and inability to play free-flowing strokes while opening the innings in the last few games clearly indicate the fact that he’s being severely stressed due to the immense pressure that he is in to prove his worth and fulfil the huge expectations that the franchise has from him. His stats this season so far with his team having lost all the 8 games it’s played so far are:-
Matches Runs 50s
8 199 2
With scores of 14, 26, 3, 13, 0, and 8 in his last 6 innings, it’s certain that Kishan hasn’t been able to make justice to his name and Mumbai’s decision of going all after him during the auctions hasn’t been proved worth it. His defensive approach at the early stages of the innings has been a big setback for his side. Never before was the explosive youngster seen so much restricted in the field with the bat in his hand.
His poor form has been a huge reason why Mumbai Indians are yet to register its first win of the season in spite of already having played 8 games. Their objective of investing a more than expected amount on Kishan with the opening rebuilding a strong time as they did back in 2013 hasn’t been fulfilled at all. Moving on from here Mumbai doesn’t have any hopes of making it to the top 4 left with them. All their strategies to make things happen for themselves have ended up in absolute disarray.
Their major players haven’t struck from which has hurt them considerably. A certain Ishan Kishan who was highly looked upon to deliver quality performances this season has led his team and management down miserably. It remains to be seen if the team still rests any trust upon the player in the seasons to come after his terrible woes this season which cost the side all the pride that it had gathered over a period of around 10 years.
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