Ishan Kishan on maiden Test fifty: ‘Virat Kohli told me to go play your game’

Ishan Kishan has revealed he was urged by Virat Kohli to go and play his natural game on the fourth day of the second Test at Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad and Tobago. That resulted in a blistering knock for his maiden Test fifty.

Kishan brought up his fifty from just 33 balls on Sunday as India batted quickly to try and eke out a win. The left-hander’s innings witnessed two sixes and four fours. Eventually, India scored 181/2 to given West Indies a 365 run target.

Kishan’s fifty was the joint-fifth fastest fifty by an Indian in Test cricket as he joined the likes of Rishabh Pant, Virender Sehwag, Kapil Dev, Harbhajan and MS Dhoni on the list.

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Kishan also went past Dhoni’s record of 34-ball fifty to smash the second-fastest fifty by an Indian wicketkeeper. The quickest was Pant’s 28-ball fifty against Sri Lanka in Bengaluru last year.

At the end of the day’s play, West Indies were 76/2 and still needed 289 runs to level the series. Failing which, India would win the series 1-0 or 2-0 depending on the outcome of this clash.

Kohli let his usual No 4 spot go to Ishan and in his temporary place, Ishan, stepping in as replacement for the injured Rishabh Pant, lapped it up.

“Was really special. I knew what the team needed from me. Everyone backed me. Virat backed me and told me go and play your game. Let’s hope we will finish the game tomorrow,” he was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.

“It was Virat bhai who took the initiative and told that I should go in. There was a slow left-armer who was bowling. It was a good call for the team. Sometimes you need to take these calls. We had the plan that we will play 10-12 overs after the rain break and score 70-80 runs. We wanted a 370-380 target,” said Kishan.