Ishan Kishan marvels on debut for India

India’s 2016 U-19 stars Ishan Kishan, Washington Sundar and Rishabh Pant put on a show on Sunday night to help India make a comeback against England. Just as England dominated the 1st T20I after winning a crucial toss, India did the same on a slightly slower pitch in the 2nd T20I. The star of the day was the Jharkhand keeper-batsman, Ishan Kishan. The left-hander replaced Shikhar Dhawan in the side and played some elegant strokes to score a half-century on his debut for the country. He shared a 94-run partnership with the Indian captain Virat Kohli who was back to his best as he controlled India’s chase beautifully with an incredibly well-paced inning of 74* from 49 balls.

India got off to a great start with the ball when Bhuvneshwar Kumar got the wicket of Jos Buttler of the very first over of the game. This early dismissal stunted the scoring rate for England as Jason Roy and Dawid Malan looked increasingly uncomfortable at the crease and only scored 44 runs in the powerplay. The English batsman struggled in the middle overs against the spinners and Washington Sundar in particular was magnificent with the ball, picking up the two key wickets of Roy and Bairstow.

The Indian pacers were extremely clever at the death as well and used the slower balls and cutters to good effect to reduce England to a score of 164 after only 35 runs were scored in the last 5 overs.

Like England, India lost a wicket in the first over of the innings as well as KL Rahul’s poor form continued into the second T20I. Nevertheless, the early breakthrough didn’t affect the mindset of young Ishan Kishan who played with great authority and class on his debut. He was watchful at the start of his innings but got into his rhythm in the final over of the powerplay where he smashed Tom Curran for 16 runs. He continued his onslaught against Adil Rashid whom he hit for two consecutive sixes to bring up his half-century.

Kishan was eventually dismissed after mistiming a reverse sweep but the carnage continued thanks to another left-handed youngster, Rishabh Pant. Pant made a valuable cameo of 26 from 13 balls which took India closer to victory. The chase-master Virat Kohli eventually saw the game through with some lusty blows to help India win by seven wickets and level the series at 1-1.