Ishan Kishan’s IPL 2023 was good, but not good enough

Ishan Kishan had a good season/Ishan Kishan had a mediocre season - it all depends on how you want to look at it. 

454 runs in 15 innings at an average of 30.27 and a strike rate of 142.8 are pretty decent numbers if you are comparing it with what he did in the last two editions of the Indian Premier League or what his Mumbai Indians partner and India’s current T20I skipper Rohit Sharma produced this season.

But was it enough to guarantee him a spot in the Indian T20I XI? Well, not really. The likes of Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad didn’t only score a lot more runs than Kishan but also did it at a quicker rate. In fact, someone like Virat Kohli had far more consistency and better numbers.

Rohit and KL Rahul haven’t played a single T20I since the last T20 World Cup in November 2022, and it is Kishan who has featured in each of those eight games as an opener, with Shubman Gill partnering him in six of them, including India's last T20I series against New Zealand. 

Gill clobbered a stunning century in the last T20I, and if that wasn’t enough to seal his spot, the 23-year-old followed it up with a King-like IPL and has made himself invincible in this format. Meanwhile, there was a bit of pressure on Kishan going into the IPL, considering he had managed only 110 runs in his last eight T20Is at an underwhelming strike rate of 93.2.

The left-hander from Jharkhand won’t always give you big runs and has a couple of noticeable flaws in his batting, but at the same time, he has the capability of playing those match-winning knocks out of nowhere. And, to be honest, he did exactly that for MI this year.

Kishan had eight 30-plus scores in 15 innings, and in six of those, he had a strike rate of more than 150. These are impressive returns for someone who has always been labelled as an inconsistent batter, but the problem for Kishan is that the likes of Gill, Jaiswal and Gaikwad produced even better numbers in a year where batters dominated.

Let’s keep Kohli out of this conversation and compare Kishan with the aforementioned three. The 24-year-old had an average of just over 30, while none of the other three operated below 42. Moreover, Gill, Jaiswal and Gaikwad looked more compact across different conditions, bowling types and phases than Kishan.

Against spin this season, Kishan scored 169 runs at an average of 24.14 and a strike rate of 133.07. Then you have someone like Jaiswal, who didn’t get out to spin even once despite scoring 210 runs against them and having a strike-rate of 153.28. 

Gill was brilliant, too, with an average of 63 and a strike rate of 158.16. Gaikwad did have an average of 30.63 but his SR of 162.25 was the second-best amongst openers who scored at least 100 runs against spin this season, showing his prowess.

There’s no pattern to Kishan’s record against spin in the IPL. In 2018, he had an average of close to 30 and an SR of 177.8, which dropped to 22.67 and 101.5, respectively in the 2019 edition. He had his best season in 2020 before falling apart once again in 2021. 

In 2022, Kishan had an average of 78.5 vs spin but his strike rate was just 127.6. This season, he had an average of 78 vs spin in the powerplay, which went down to 13 in the middle overs (7-15). Spinners were able to keep him quiet by bowling just outside the off-stump, as the graphic below suggests. 

As an opposition, it’s not that tough to plan against Kishan. The left-hander has an SR of just 97.4 against off-spin (268 deliveries faced) in the IPL since 2018. He doesn’t get out to them, but his SR always remains a concern. In fact, amongst batters who have faced at least 100 deliveries of off-spin in this period, Kishan has the second-worst SR after Krunal Pandya (75.6).

If you look at Jaiswal, who is also a left-hander - he smoked 73 runs off 38 deliveries at an SR of 192.1 against off-spin. What offspinners are to left-handed batters, left-arm spinners are to right-handers. Both Gaikwad (SR 161.3) and Gill (SR 139.5) had little trouble facing left-arm spin in this year’s IPL, which tells you about their well-rounded game against spin.

Kishan’s record against left-arm spin has always been impeccable but the opener didn’t have a great time against leg-spinners this season. He got out to them five times and ended with an average of just 12. Gaikwad (average 18.4 and SR 143.8), too, got out to leggies five times but had solid numbers (average 37 and SR 130.6) against them in the previous three seasons.

Kishan’s numbers against pace improved immensely from last year but were still not as good as Gill, Jaiswal and Gaikwad’s. The other problem in Kishan’s game is that he plays a lot of dot deliveries. Amongst these four, Kishan had the highest dot percentage (40.8%). Jaiswal (39.7%) was close but his balls/boundary (3.5) was a lot better than Kishan’s (4.4) and others.

Now let’s look at what he did in the powerplay. 333 runs @ 55.5 and a strike rate of 144.8 are pretty good, but the problem remains the same. His SR and average were still the worst among the four. That’s not it; Gill, Jaiswal and Gaikwad also fared much better in the middle overs, where Kishan had an average of just 15.

Just like his franchise, Kishan, too had a better record while chasing. The opener went at an average of 35.67 and a strike rate of 151.4 in the second innings compared to 22.17 and 125.5 in the first. Batting first, only twice in six innings, did Kishan have a strike rate of more than 125. 

His season ended with Chris Jordan’s elbow to his left eye, giving him “a bit of a concussion”. As a result, he couldn’t bat in the second qualifier against Gujarat Titans and failed to leave a last impression during the 234-run chase.

One advantage that Kishan has over these three is he can keep wickets, but even that could be nullified if India decides to go with even one of Sanju Samson or Jitesh Sharma in the middle-order. 

But for now, the chances of Kishan making it to India’s T20I XI looks very slim, and he could only look at the mirror for reasons.