Ishan Kishan's opening gambit is good but his middle overs marauding could be even better

9th June, 2022. The Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi is packed to the rafters. There are Indian flags, music is blaring out at every juncture and despite the heat, people have found enough energy to make the atmosphere as electric as possible.

Rishabh Pant, who has never captained India before, walks out for the toss and is greeted by a deafening applause. But then, he loses the toss. At first, there is a hushed silence across the ground. However, knowing that that will force India to bat first, there is celebration.

Ruturaj Gaikwad, who has often set the IPL stage alight, strides out to the centre. He is accompanied by a sprightly left-handed batter. Most at the ground have heard about him. They’ve heard that he can tear any bowling attack to shreds and that he could be India’s next big T20 superstar.

To counter his threat, South Africa deploy spin early. The first ball he faces is calmly dabbed into the off-side. The second ball he faces pitches outside off stump and rips past him, his leg-stump and Quinton de Kock. A couple of balls later, he has a waft at a wide delivery and edges it past short third man for four. He makes up for it with a slightly more convincing lofted cover drive but it still seems he is out of his depth. He is then confronted by the searing pace of Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada.

Both South Africans have regularly made waves in the IPL. They often bowl with the new ball and are capable of extracting movement off the most docile surfaces. At Delhi, though, with the pitch aiding seam movement, they come into their own.

Ishan Kishan struggled in the powerplay against South Africa

This left-handed batter, who didn’t look too convincing against spin, is put to the test. He is turned inside out. He hopelessly pokes at deliveries and misses. And looks anything but an international opener. He even forces people at the ground to wonder what the hype is all about.

But even during that spell, when he gets deliveries in his arc, he feasts on them. Anything pitched full is bludgeoned back past the bowler or through extra cover. A bit of width and the ball races away like a tracer bullet to the fence.

And, once the shine wears off and the fielding restrictions ease, he tells those at the ground what he is really capable of. The batter in question, by the way, is Ishan Kishan – someone who endured a sub-standard IPL but was easily the highest-paid player at the auction that preceded the tournament.

You might ask why IPL auction details are relevant when talking about India performances. For a lot of cricketers, it might not be pertinent. For Kishan, it is. Not because it tells you how much dynamic left-handed batters are in demand in T20 cricket, but also because it illustrates that he could have as high a ceiling as anyone in India.

In IPL 2022, that faith meant he opened in every game alongside Rohit Sharma. Over the past couple of years, there has been an inclination on the Mumbai Indians and India’s part to use Kishan as an opener. To be fair to the wicket-keeper, he has repaid it too, with stellar displays such as the one on Thursday being an example.

But, in between those, there have also been outings where he has looked very scratchy – outings where the bat and ball have been in different postcodes. Both have wanted to be together but like a toxic relationship, found ways to distance themselves. There have been happy moments, where both have met like they were always meant to. However, on days where Kishan isn’t at the races, it gets particularly bad, and ugly.

During the powerplay on Thursday, it felt as if it was one of those days. Kishan played and missed most deliveries that seamed a touch. He also couldn’t pick the variations the likes of Nortje, Rabada and Wayne Parnell were coming up with. When the bowlers ventured into his half, though, he was severe.

Apart from that, he was particularly bruising against Keshav Maharaj’s left-arm spin. In the powerplay, he scored 26 runs off 23 balls, which included at least 8-10 streaky runs. Post that, he mustered 50 runs off 25 balls, with boundaries against all kinds of bowling.

For those thinking that this was an anomaly, it wasn’t quite that. It may seem a little paradoxical suggesting that Kishan – an opener by trade, enjoys the middle overs more. But that is exactly what happens with Kishan.

Throughout his T20 career, the wicket-keeper has struck at a tick more than 133 in the middle overs. In the powerplay, that number dips to 121.76. He doesn’t get dismissed often during the field restrictions – something that an average of 54.18 testifies for. However, he only averages 28.47 in the middle overs, meaning that on quite a few occasions, he chews up deliveries and doesn’t make it count.

In T20Is, the difference is starker. In the powerplay, he crawls along at 116.77. Against pace in particular, he strikes at 119.54. In the middle overs, that jumps up to 142.72. Against pace during this pace, the strike rate zings up to 158.82. He has also not been dismissed by pace in the middle overs in T20Is.

During IPL 2022, the story was quite similar. Kishan ambled along at a strike rate of 109.09 against pace in the powerplay. Against spin, that number went up to 128.57. Historically too, Kishan has only struck at around 128 and 107 against pace and spin, respectively, in the powerplay in the IPL – numbers not befitting of someone expected to set the game up at the outset.

In the middle overs (in IPL cricket), the strike rate against pace goes up to 130.56 and the strike rate against spin touches 132.55 – massive improvements from when he bats against that type of bowling in the powerplay.

The counter argument could be that Kishan bats so well in the middle overs because he has time to establish himself at the crease. However, with KL Rahul and Rohit capable of playing that role, and with both having a greater pedigree of scoring runs, Kishan will never be able to beat them in that particular race.

The wicket-keeper’s value or USP is around his ability to be fearless and take down bowlers with ease. He can do it at any stage of the innings but as bowlers have become mindful of his threat, stats suggest that he relishes batting in the middle overs a lot more.

Much of that is down to bowlers knowing what areas to bowl to him. In IPL 2022, he struggled against Mukesh Choudhary and Pat Cummins – two vastly different bowlers. Mukesh got the ball to swing away from Kishan, and Cummins kept badgering away on a hard length, angling the ball across the wicket-keeper. A few months ago, Sheldon Cottrell, much like Choudhary, had caused the MI batter plenty of grief.

So, there is a clear blueprint that teams can follow. To an extent, Nortje and Rabada did so on Thursday too, only for luck to not aid their endeavours. Long story short, Kishan can be tied down in the powerplay and with more exposure, international outfits will have better-formulated plans against him.

At this point, it doesn’t seem that India want to shelve the idea of Kishan opening the innings. In whatever fleeting opportunities he has received, he has given a good account of himself. What they must contemplate, though, is that the wicket-keeper, whose opening gambits are pretty good, can even be better if he is deployed as a middle-overs marauder. Kishan treated Maharaj like a club bowler on Thursday. And nothing felt forced. It was almost as if it came naturally to him.

India don’t have a dearth of middle order options. But do they have someone who can take spinners apart as easily as Kishan? Maybe not. Do they have someone who opens, can anchor the powerplay and then explode later in the innings apart from him? Definitely yes.

It might seem very complicated, considering how talented Kishan is and how he and most of the teams he has played for have viewed him as an opener. The answer, though, could be a lot simpler than anyone might have ever thought.