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Ishan Kishan appears to be moving away from wicketkeeping duties this IPL season, a call that seemed to benefit him during Sunrisers Hyderabad’s outing against Rajasthan Royals. Leading the side as a pure outfielder gave him greater freedom to stay involved in the game and manage his bowlers more effectively.
While several captains, most notably MS Dhoni, have thrived while keeping wickets and directing play from behind the stumps and achieved immense success in bot international cricket and IPL, Kishan has taken a different route. He admitted that communication with his bowlers wasn’t always smooth when he had the gloves on. Passing the responsibility to Salil Arora allowed him to be more vocal and better connected with the field, which reflected in his on-field decisions and overall control of the match.
The SRH skipper opened up on the challenges of leading while keeping wickets, explaining how it sometimes affected to stay in constant touch with his bowlers and convey plans clearly during crucial phases of the game.
“I think, as a captain, I felt, there was some miscommunication going on. Sometimes your keeping, time is not there. You’re not able to communicate with your bowlers what the plans are,” Kishan said in the post-match presentation.
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Kishan, who is leading SRH in the absence of Pat Cummins, said being in the outfield helped him stay in constant touch with his bowlers, discuss plans more clearly, and adjust fields on the go, something that worked in the team’s favour, and he will look to keep the same going forward in the season.
“So it’s better to be there, discuss with them what they’re going to bowl so that we can… set the field accordingly. And that was the plan and I think it worked pretty well for us. (is that the way going forward?) Hopefully, yes,” he added.
“If Abhishek Sharma gets going SRH can post 260-270”
Meanwhile, SRH’s explosive opening pair, Abhishek Sharma (0) and Travis Head (18), faltered against Rajasthan Royals, but Ishan stepped up, took responsibility and anchored the innings with a well-crafted 91 to set up a solid total.
Responding to whether SRH fell short with the bat, Kishan backed the team’s firepower and explained the approach around Abhishek Sharma’s free-flowing style, stressing the need to bat deep while allowing the opener to play his natural game.
“I think looking at the batting unit and the form these guys are carrying because we have been scoring 200 plus runs in each and every game at least. So yeah, but still I think the way Abhishek plays, you know, sometimes he can get out, but our job is to, take the game deep and play those cricketing shots, but leave him freely because he’s someone, if he gets going, he just changes game and gets you a total of 260 or 270. So we don’t ask anything else from him. But still, yeah, he got out. I think he’ll be motivated in the next game and he’ll do….” he said.
