MS Dhoni's batting advice has helped Ishan Kishan big time

Ishan Kishan has been one of the most exciting prospects in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018 and his franchise, defending champions Mumbai Indians, will be happy to see him repaying their faith in him. Interestingly, not only has he been promising in his role as a first down batsman, but his wicket-keeping skills have also ensured that the MI management has been able to play an extra batsman or bowler according to the situation.

So far, Kishan has amassed 151 runs in the 5 games so far at an average of 30.20, but a healthy strike rate of 145.19 with his first fifty against Rajasthan Royals on Sunday. Along with that, he has also picked 3 catches and effected 2 stumpings. In the match against Royal Challengers Bangalore, he was injured after the ball bounced off a foot-hole and while the initial aftermath of the injury looked nasty, he recovered just in time for the next match against RR where he scored the half-century.

And while he has made an impact this season for Mumbai Indians, the journey started back in the 2016-17 Ranji Trophy season for Jharkhand where he played under former India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Ishan amassed 799 runs in 10 games that season at an average of 57.07. The former U19 skipper said that it was Dhoni who made him work on his attitude at the crease.

Dhoni’s advice

“Dhoni bhai saw me at the nets and walked up to me and said that I needed to curtail my attacking instincts to begin with. He believed that to play a long innings I needed to be a little more compact and I did just that. He asked me to change my stance as well and when it comes from someone like Dhoni bhai, you know you can trust his observation,” the MI keeper said.

“I got time to rework my stance and train with my new stance during the camp ahead of the season and I realised that I was feeling a lot better at the crease. I have maintained that stance since and I have seen that it has enhanced my batting,” Kishan added, as reported by Cricket Next.

With the fitness culture on the rise in Indian cricket, upcoming cricketers and youngsters too have adopted a healthy lifestyle after realising how necessary it is for any athlete now. For Ishan, the reality check came when Dhoni arranged for a fitness camp which he thinks was the best thing to have happened.

“Dhoni bhai puts a lot of emphasis on fitness. As we all know, he loves to stay at the top of his fitness level. And this time, he ensured that we also worked on our fitness at the start of the season. It was obviously something that wasn’t too common with the domestic teams, but the experience was out of the world,” he revealed.

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