"Ab bas gaali dena baki hain management ko" - Fans slam BCCI after they pick Ishan Kishan for first 2 Tests against Australia

Team India wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan has earned his maiden Test call after he was included for the first two Tests against Australia, with the Border-Gavaskar Trophy scheduled to begin on February 9 in Nagpur.

Kishan came in place of Rishabh Pant, who has been ruled out of action for almost six months. Pant, who is India's first-choice wicketkeeper-batter, was involved in a road accident in Roorkee on December 30 while on his way home. He is currently admitted to a Mumbai hospital and is undergoing treatment.

Kishan is the second wicketkeeper in the side alongside KS Bharat. However, fans were unhappy to see the Jharkhand-born cricketer in the Test squad. Many reckon that there are better wicketkeeper-batters in the country who have consistently performed on the domestic circuit.

Here are some of the reactions:

Incidentally, Kishan has so far featured in 87 first-class games, scoring 2985 runs, including six centuries and 16 fifties, at an average of 38.76. The southpaw smacked a swashbuckling hundred in his first Ranji Trophy game this season against Kerala but failed to get going in the next three innings.

For the record, Vidarbha's Akshay Wadekar and Uttar Pradesh's Upendra Yadav boast a better record in domestic cricket compared to Kishan but were ignored by the selectors. Wadekar averages 54.56 in 57 innings, including eight centuries, while Upendra has four tons under his belt in 43 innings and boasts an average of 43.84.

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"I've scored plenty of runs in red-ball cricket" - Ishan Kishan on his Test aspirations

Ishan Kishan recently established himself as an ODI cricketer, slamming a swashbuckling double century against Bangladesh last month. However, the youngster asserted that he considers himself an all-format player and gives equal importance to Test cricket.

"As you know after slamming the 200 against Bangladesh, Jharkhand had a match within a day gap," Ishan said in an interview with senior cricket journalist Vimal Kumar. "So if I didn't give importance to Test, I would have rested and prepared for the white ball series against Sri Lanka.

"But I traveled straight to Ranchi to play the Ranji Trophy match against Kerala. So it's not necessary that you can only play T20s if you have the reputation of hitting big sixes. The hundred that I scored for Jharkhand came in 192 balls."

“Everyone has their own process and it also depends on how the coach and selectors look at you," he added. "They also need to take care of the workload management. But if you ask me I'm ready to play for India in three formats. And it's not that I've to put in extra effort for it, I've scored plenty of runs in red-ball cricket."

It remains to be seen if Kishan breaks into India's playing XI for the first Test against Australia.

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