Has BCCI Forgotten Ishan Kishan?

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) selected a new-look Indian team for the upcoming tour of Zimbabwe, providing a glimpse into the format’s future without players like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. This was more than a month ago, right before the 2024 T20 World Cup semifinals began. Beginning on July 6, the Shubman Gill-led team will play five Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is). Not a single member of the Twenty20 World Cup team will be playing because all of the players from the winning team have rested and will not be playing in the final stage of the series.

The BCCI has changed the roster thrice in the past week. After the selectors made healthy changes on Tuesday, Shivam Dube who had replaced the injured Nitish Kumar Reddy in the first was taken out of the team. For the first two Twenty20 Internationals against Zimbabwe, the committee decided to substitute Sai Sudharsan, Jitesh Sharma, and Harshit Rana for Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, and Yashasvi Jaiswal. For the last two Twenty20 International matches, the three T20 World Cup winners will play with the Indian team.

READ MORE: Team India leaves for Zimbabwe with VVS Laxman as a coach

Ishan was India’s first-choice wicketkeeper in the T20I format until mid-2023 since the squad was focusing on preparing for the 2024 T20 World Cup and Rishabh Pant’s recovery remained unknown. Ishan was not just a left-hander, but he could bat at any position in the lineup.

He, however, only participated in three of the eleven Twenty20 Internationals India had scheduled to be ready for the ICC T20 competition following the 2023 ODI World Cup.

He saw himself falling down the pecking order after hitting back-to-back 50 at home against Australia, with Jitesh Sharma emerging as the first-choice keeper.

Where is Ishan Kishan?

Ishan took a mental health leave of absence a month later and did not resume his international activities. Kishan had been invited by the BCCI to play in Jharkhand’s Ranji Trophy matches on many occasions, but he disregarded the requests. Later, when he was seen in Baroda preparing for the IPL season with Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya, the board members became enraged.

Ishan appears to have been overlooked for the Zimbabwe series, which has a redesigned Indian team, as well as the T20 World Cup squad. Even more concerning is the fact that he has fallen even lower in the rankings since Dhruv Jurel, who made an outstanding Test debut earlier this year, is expected to start keeping for the first three games in Samson’s absence and Jitesh will be his backup.