Ishan Kishan

Picture Credit: Twitter

Indian wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan has recently opened up about his thoughts on being dropped from the squad for the upcoming Asia Cup 2022 in the UAE. He believes that it is a positive thing for him as this will encourage him to work harder and score more runs to make a come back into the team. 

India named a 15-member squad for the Asia Cup on 8 August where Ishan Kishan was not included in the squad. The tournament will start from 27 August onwards, with India kicking off their campaign with a high-intensity bout against Pakistan on 28 August.

"I feel that what selectors do is fair. They put a lot of thought while selecting players as to who should be given the opportunity and where. It is a positive for me because if I am not selected, I will work harder and score more runs. When selectors will have confidence in me, they will obviously keep me in the team," said Kishan.

Kishan’s exclusion may be a surprise to many as he is India's second highest-run scorer in T20I cricket this year. In 14 innings, he has scored 430 runs at an average of 30.71. He has also put up three half-centuries for India this year, with the best score of 89. Ishan is behind Shreyas Iyer, who is the top scorer for India in T20Is this year, as he has scored 449 runs in 14 games.

Former New Zealand all-rounder Scott Styris addressed Kishan’s omission and talked about how he must be disappointed with this decision. He said, “So that says that he was always a frontline player in this Indian side and I guess it's unlucky for Ishan Kishan, he's got that left-handed ability which I think they'd have loved to have got into the squad if they possibly could have because it's a very right-handed dominant side until to get to someone like Rishabh Pant. So, I think he'll be disappointed and naturally, he's a terrific player.”

India squad for Asia Cup: 

Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Deepak Hooda, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan.

Standbys: Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Deepak Chahar.