India vs South Africa 2022: Ishan Kishan underlines India’s new, more aggressive batting approach

Ishan Kishan. For the Indian team management, he is the designated backup opener to Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul in T20 cricket. Yet, he is the one who invariably plays many matches. With the crammed schedule dictating that players often get rest, either Rohit or Rahul is always unavailable. And in the case of the ongoing series against South Africa, since both Rohit and Rahul are missing, Ishan has to play the senior opener’s role.

Read AlsoCan't ask Rohit and Rahul to drop themselves for me: Ishan Kishan

Regular skipper Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul are quite few notches above him in terms of sheer quality and Ishan Kishan knows only too well that he can't just ask the "world class" batters to "drop themselves" from playing XI in order to accommodate him.

Now, here’s the catch. The Indian team is thinking of veering away from its conservative approach to T20 batting. The T20 World Cup is barely five months away. And Ishan Kishan has become the face of the ultra-aggressive brand of batting that India aspires to play in the World Cup. Ishan has to set the tempo up front for the others to provide a powerful finish. He has to make sure he scores enough runs so that he doesn’t fall off the radar too. On Thursday night, against a full-strength South African attack, his frailties against the new ball came to the fore.

Read AlsoEven biggest of players can struggle: Ishan Kishan on his below-par IPL 2022 season

Ishan Kishan has failed to live up to the most expensive player tag in this IPL but the Mumbai Indians wicketkeeper batter is not unduly worried about his form, saying even the best of cricketers "struggle" at some point.

His start wasn’t the prettiest to watch but there was no shortage of intent to go after the bowlers. For