Ishan Kishan Is Knocking Hard. But Is There Any Room in India’s Test XI?

There is an old maxim that goes something along the lines of: ‘Good is not enough when better is expected, and better is not enough when you can become the best.’ Maybe, just maybe, when Ishan Kishan found himself in the wilderness, he ended up reciting this line every single day. djcc.club

With impressive performances in domestic cricket and for India in T20Is, he barged through the T20 World Cup selection door. Some months later, with the selectors watching, Kishan finished with a memorable 270 in the Duleep Trophy final in Chennai. He followed that up with an 80 in the second innings.

With the sheer weight of runs behind him, Kishan would certainly have given the national selectors food for thought about his potential in the longest format. Of course, the sceptics would argue that Kishan compiled those runs on a placid surface. But more than the runs he accumulated, it was his zen-masterly concentration that stood out.

Be it just before a lunch or tea break, or when the opposition tried to induce a false shot with four fielders square and behind square on the on side, Kishan’s concentration did not waver one bit. His long vigil at the crease would have convinced the selectors, to some extent, that he is more than just a T20 cricketer.

On his part, Kishan observed that being the captain of the East Zone side had helped him build a strong foundation.

“When you are the captain of the team, the first thing [you develop] is situational awareness,” Kishan said after scoring 270 off 334 balls in the Duleep Trophy final against South Zone. “You have to stay alert the entire day on the field to understand what is happening and what isn’t. You have to take care of all your team-mates. There are so many small things we often overlook in our daily routines – you don’t look at your players or try to help them figure out how they can get better. But when you are the captain, it becomes your duty to help them.

“You will have to take responsibility. If you don’t take it now, when will you? It’s not like I am 22 years old and have just broken into the team. Going through this whole [leadership] process leads to immense personal growth, and while you might not realise it immediately, your mindset shifts completely, and you become much calmer about things.”

Having showered praise on Kishan, however, his chances of breaking open the Test-selection door immediately look remote. As a wicketkeeper-batter, he is up against Rishabh Pant, one of India’s finest Test cricketers, alongside Dhruv Jurel, who has also done well in the limited opportunities he has had in Test cricket.

Even if Kishan were to be considered as a pure batter, there is Sarfaraz Khan waiting in the wings. Tilak Varma himself has put together gritty performances in the ongoing Duleep Trophy.

Kishan, though, would have just one thought in his mind: accumulate as many runs as possible and leave it to the selectors to decide his fate in the longest format of the game.

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England inflicted a historic batting collapse on Pakistan before fifties from Emilio Gay and Harry Brook ensured the hosts ended the opening day of the third Test in a strong position. Pakistan, already 2-0 down in the three-match series, were dismissed for a meagre 133 on Wednesday after England captain Joe Root won the toss and chose to field in overcast conditions at Edgbaston. A much-changed Pakistan line-up again had few answers to the England new-ball pair of Ollie Robinson (3-15) and Jofra Archer (3-25), with the tourists all out in a mere 33.5 overs.

Fellow paceman Josh Tongue got in on the act with 4-42, with Pakistan still to reach 200 in five innings this series. Pakistan created an unwanted piece of history after their top five were all dismissed in a rapid decline to 48-5. This was the first time in Test cricket that a team's top five had all been out for single figures in the first innings of a match. Fast bowler Razaullah gave Pakistan hope with two wickets on his debut, including the key scalp of Root for just eight, with England faltering at 39-3. But Gay (60) and Brook (52 not out) shared a fourth-wicket stand of 104 before England reached stumps on 156-4, a lead of 23 runs.

Gay's 114-ball innings ended when he played on to the fiery Razaullah, the 21-year-old taking 2-42 in nine overs. Harry Brook reined in his attacking instincts while compiling a 70-ball half-century. "Coming here this morning, winning the toss, putting Pakistan in to bat, bowling them out for 130 odd -- we're in a really strong position," Tongue told Sky Sports. Pakistan banished seven players and sacked head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed and assistant Umar Gul after a heavy 194-run defeat in the second Test at Lord's before making four changes to their side in Birmingham.

'Soft dismissals'

But only Saud Shakeel, fresh from his 97 at Lord's, offered any resistance by a specialist batsman with 43. "I thought early on the pitch had some moisture in it and overcast conditions were helping the bowlers as well, but at the same time we got some soft dismissals and we couldn't get back from there," said Shakeel. "We started good with the bowling. If we get them (England) out early in the morning there is a good chance we can get back in the game."

Pakistan's latest slump started when recalled opener Saim Ayub was out for a duck, lbw to Robinson as the 32-year-old took his 100th Test wicket. Pakistan captain Babar Azam, without a Test century in nearly four years, was clean bowled for just seven by Tongue. Razaullah fell shortly after the interval and Shakeel was bowled by Tongue.

England also lost early wickets as Ben Duckett and Jordan Cox were dismissed. Root has repeatedly got England out of trouble in his long career, but newcomer Razaullah pinned him in front of his stumps as he fell lbw for the 10th time in 13 innings. Averaging a lowly 23.44 from his first nine Test innings, Gay completed a watchful fifty, his third in Tests and first of this series, with an elegant cut to the boundary.

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[popcorn number="192" desc="No. of runs scored by Bista in three matches of the ongoing Kanga League so far" class="Default"]

[popcorn number="1898" desc="No. of runs scored by Jay Bista in 34 first-class matches @ 32.72" class="Default"]

Attacking opener Jay Bista, 30, is currently not in Mumbai’s senior team plans, but the batter is not willing to give up. Bista, who has played 34 first-class matches and scored 1,898 runs, made his Ranji Trophy debut in 2015. He moved to Uttarakhand in 2021-22, where he scored 224 runs in four Ranji games, before returning to Mumbai, whom he last represented in the 2023-24 season, scoring 188 runs in four matches during their title-winning campaign.

Runs keep flowing

Recently, while leading Victory Cricket Club in the ongoing Dr HD Kanga Cricket League Division ‘A’, Bista has scored 192 runs in three games — 78 off 48 balls against Shivaji Park Gymkhana, 24 off 24 against PJ Hindu Gymkhana and 90 off 64 against New Hindu Cricket Club.

Bista feels there are two primary reasons why he is not being considered for Ranji selection. First, he believes Mumbai’s selection committee have deemed him a white-ball player. Second, he feels the selectors consider his age a problem.

“I don’t know what they [Mumbai selectors] are currently looking at. They haven’t included me even in the Ranji probables. I don’t think I’m that bad to not even make the probables. I’ve heard that I have been labelled as a white-ball player and someone who can’t play red-ball cricket, but I’m scoring runs in red-ball cricket. Last year, I played three Times Shield games where I scored one fifty and 150 [146 vs DY Patil Group B]. So, I’m enjoying scoring runs in red-ball cricket,” Bista told mid-day.

‘I don’t see any issue’

On the age factor, he said: “I have heard that some people feel I’m a bit old to be considered for Mumbai. But if I’m at the top of my fitness levels, then I don’t see any issue. In fact, fitness-wise, I’m just getting better every day,” added Bista, admitting it’s difficult to digest being overlooked.

“It feels bad not to be in this scheme of things because, from the age of 13 till 28, I have continuously played BCCI tournaments for Mumbai or Uttarakhand. Even now, I’m doing my job. It’s been a good start to the season, scoring runs in Kanga League,” said Bista, who has scored 1,384 runs in 35 List A matches and 1,001 in 34 T20s.

“I want to play at the highest level and that’s the only reason I returned to Mumbai. I’m a hardcore Mumbaikar and love everything about the cricket here,” concluded Bista.

If the first impression from an afternoon at the Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy was about the relentless pursuit of excellence, the second was more uncomfortable. It came from listening to Gopi talk about coaches.

India loves talking about athletes. We celebrate medals, build high-performance centres, debate funding and increasingly understand sports science. But somewhere in this conversation sits a rather obvious question: who coaches the coaches? Pullela Gopichand believes coach development remains one of Indian sport’s unfinished projects.

What, for instance, constitutes a grassroots coach? When does that person become an intermediate coach? What separates an intermediate coach from someone capable of handling an elite athlete? Is there a nationally understood gradation system that clearly defines competence, responsibility and progression? More importantly, does becoming a better coach translate into better recognition, remuneration and opportunity? These aren’t semantic questions. They go to the heart of building a sporting nation.

A mature coaching ecosystem should resemble a pyramid. At its broadest level are grassroots coaches who identify talent, teach fundamentals and, crucially, make children fall in love with sport. Above them are development coaches capable of taking promising youngsters through the technically demanding adolescent years. Then come high-performance and elite coaches, where biomechanics, tactical intelligence, psychology, recovery and marginal gains become increasingly important.

Each requires different skills. Yet the pathway connecting them must be visible.

International sporting systems increasingly treat coaching as a profession requiring continuing education, accreditation, mentoring and evaluation. India needs its own architecture: clearly defined coaching levels, certification, periodic upskilling, independent assessment and a motivational structure where excellence allows coaches to progress both professionally and financially.

The point is that coaches need dreams too. That was perhaps the most fascinating subtext to Gopi’s reflections. There were no foreign coaches visible at the academy during our visit. Gopi isn’t doctrinaire about this. There will always be circumstances where international expertise can add enormous value. But importing a coach and developing a coaching culture are two very different things. Build an Indian coach today and you potentially create a 20-year runway of athlete development.

And Gopi’s own work demonstrates why coaching cannot simply be about imposing a template. Take Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty. Both possess enormous power, both can smash, and both are capable at the net. At the highest level, coaching becomes about exploiting combinations, creating tactical advantages and turning complementary strengths into unpredictability.

Then consider Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand. Here the approach had to be different. Gopi spoke about working on their rotations and consciously developing Treesa’s effectiveness at the net while allowing Gayatri greater influence from the back court. Same sport. Same event. Completely different coaching solution. That is where coaching becomes part science, part craft and part human understanding.

And it leads to a larger thought about India’s sporting ambitions. We often define the sporting ecosystem through athletes, federations, leagues, sponsors and infrastructure. Perhaps that definition is too narrow. A genuine sporting nation needs an entire human-performance ecosystem around the athlete: coaches, educators, evaluators, mentors, sports scientists and people capable of developing each of them.

India’s next sporting revolution therefore may not begin with discovering another prodigious 12-year-old. It might begin with discovering the 30-year-old who can coach that child for the next decade, and creating a system that inspires that coach to remain in sport for the next twenty years. We have spent years asking where India’s next champion will come from.

Gopichand’s ruminations suggest an equally important question. Where will the person who builds that champion come from?

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