Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: Ishan Kishan is living his dream at the moment. He waited for his chance, and when it came, he grabbed it with both hands. He performed and is now reaping the rewards of his hard work. Ishan won the 2026 T20 World Cup, bagged two ‘Player of the Match’ awards, and was rewarded with the captaincy of Sunrisers Hyderabad.SRH will kick off their IPL 2026 campaign against defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on March 28.
SRH on Wednesday shared a video in which Ishan spoke about his new challenge — leading the side.“I am very overwhelmed, and I am very happy that I got this opportunity to lead this team. And, to be very honest, I am going to just keep it simple, not to do so much because when players come for IPL, I think they are all very good players. You just need to make sure that they are on the right track,” Ishan said.“And their mindset does not change after a few innings, going here and there. And the rest is, you know, it is going to be a good season, I guess, and we will just do it together. I think there is lots and lots and lots of learning in this season because I will tell you, in the last few years, I have understood one thing, the most important thing for a cricketer is to be in a very good headspace throughout the season,” he added.“So, mostly this season, we will make sure we just stay in the present, we just keep it simple and do as much hard work as we can before the match starts. But in the match, we are just going to enjoy the game and take one match at a time,” he added.Ishan had a stellar 2026 T20 World Cup, scoring 317 runs at an average of 35.22, with a strike rate of over 193.“It was, I feel, the best few days of my life because, you know, joining the team suddenly and winning the World Cup with the team, so it was one of the best moments. Because, you know, there was a lot of hard work going on. Players were, a few of them were not in form, but when the time was there, when it was needed the most, everyone played the best possible cricket. And we just tried to play the best role in the team, and I think we all achieved greatness with that this season,” he said.Ishan also spoke about the power of manifestation, saying he always believed he would make a big comeback.“When I was not in the team, there was no–I mean, how do I explain it? There was always this feeling that I would make it to the team anyhow, because I knew that the amount of hard work I would do would be the most important thing. And you know, you always need to believe in yourself,” he said.It was the domestic grind that helped Ishan build his path to the biggest prize in T20I cricket, as he led Jharkhand to its maiden Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) title last year, topping the charts with 517 runs in 10 innings, including two centuries and two fifties.“This will be a message to I feel so many guys, whoever is losing track or whoever is not believing in themselves, and they should know that they are supposed to believe and just keep on working hard. Things will change,” he signed off.
