'Let's not confuse T20Is with the IPL': Aakash Chopra on Ishan Kishan's struggles in shortest format

An unbeaten fifty in his debut Test series and three half-centuries on the trot in the ODI series that followed; It has no doubt been a fruitful outing for Ishan Kishan in the Caribbean. But come the T20I, he can be seen struggling to get in form; In the first T20I, he was dismissed within single digits and in the second only 23 off 23.

This is no off occasion for Ishan, who hasn’t realised as good form in T20Is. In the 29 matches he has played so far, he’s been able to gather only 686 runs at an average of 24.50, which is in stark contrast with his ODI stats, where he has played only 17 matches and gathered 694 runs at an impressive average of 46.26. And it’s not that he’s generally not well off in the T20s, as his IPL career spanning 91 matches has got him 2394 runs.

The stark difference in his stats has made former Indian batter and expert Aakash Chopra argue that Ishan’s numbers show just how different both the IPL and T20Is are.

“He has scored a double century in ODI cricket as an opener but he hasn’t fired in T20Is. Let’s not confuse T20Is with the IPL,” he said on his YouTube channel.

“In the IPL, you have a long season of 14 matches, if you bat at the top of the order and are an important player, like Ishan Kishan is for the Mumbai Indians, your place is secured and you keep on playing in one way. You know that there are a lot of matches. So you find your rhythm at some stage.”

“However, when you play T20Is, one series comes in three months. If you don’t start well in that series, suddenly you start thinking because the number of matches is limited and your place is not yet fully secured, someone or the other is waiting behind you,” he said.

After Kishan failed to break off his poor T20Is form, he was shown out in the third T20I against West Indies. Yashasvi Jaiswal was brought in instead at the top of the batting order. Jaiswal also made his Test debut in the recent West Indies series and got off to a blast of a start with 171 runs in the first innings itself.

Chopra highlighted how having someone so on the dot in the waiting line effects a players performance.

So if someone is waiting and there is pressure on you, sometimes you tend to forget what your template was. If you see the current series, he played only two matches, he has more than 50% dot balls. Ishan Kishan didn’t use to play so many dot balls.”

Jaiswal took the recent IPL season by storm, getting 636 runs in 14 matches. His IPL 2023 performance was headlined by one century and five fifties, including the 98 off 47 against Kolkata Knight Riders, where he got to the 50 mark in just 13 balls, second highest in T20s behind only Yuvraj Singh’s iconic half-century in 12 balls against England in 2007 T20I World Cup after he knocked six sixes in an over off Stuart Broad.