"I was scoring runs and then i was benched…" Ishan Kishan finally breaks his silence on 'mental fatigue' break

Ishan Kishan last played for India in the home T20I series against Australia in November 2023.

Talented Indian wicket-keeper batter Ishan Kishan has finally opened up on his mental fatigue break, following which, he lost his spot from the national side across all three formats.

During India’s tour of South Africa in December last year, wicket-keeper batter Ishan pulled out of the two-match test series citing to mental fatigue, and since then things haven’t gone well for him. After that incident, Ishan was left out of the three-match T20I series against Afghanistan earlier this year.

Then the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) left him out of central contracts for the 2023-24 season along with Shreyas Iyer. The reason for the removal was that the cricket board asked both of the cricketers to play in Indian domestic cricket, but both skipped the Ranji Trophy.

Later on, Shreyas played the Ranji Trophy 2023–24 semi-final and final for his domestic team, Mumbai, whereas Ishan was seen playing in the DY Patil Tournament before the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024.

Shreyas and Kishan also played in the IPL 2024 for their respective franchises, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Mumbai Indians (MI).

No one understood me: Ishan Kishan

After missing out on the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 and the ongoing five-match T20I series against Zimbabwe, Ishan Kishan, has finally opened up about his tough past few months.

In an interaction with the Indian Express, the wicket-keeper batter expressed that he was scoring runs, but suddenly found himself on the bench. Kishan further added that, apart from his close friends and family, no one understood what he went through.

“I was scoring runs and then I found myself on the bench. These things do happen in a team sport. However, I experienced travel fatigue. It meant there was something wrong, I was not feeling well or right and so I decided to take a break. However, sadly, barring my family and few close people no one understood that,” Ishan said.

Kishan added that these past few months have been very depressing for him, even though he was performing. “[The past few months] were depressing. Today I don’t want to say that everything was fine. It was not easy for me at all. You go through a lot. Mere dimag mey ye sab chalta raha ki yaar kya hoga gaya, kyu ho gaya, mere saath kyu (Questions like what happened, why me). All these things happened when I was performing.”

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