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One of the few players who has been at both sides of Indian Premier League’s (IPL) El Clasico, former India batter Ambati Rayudu believes Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) vice-captain Ishan Kishan has benefitted from leaving Mumbai Indians (MI). Kishan was released by MI after a lacklustre 2024 campaign. He was roped in by SRH for IPL 2025 but did not have a breakout season. However, the southpaw has grown immensely as a player in the past year. From leading Jharkhand to maiden Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy title, making a comeback to T20I side and then helping them winning to T20 World Cup 2026 win to having a good season for SRH both as a leader and with the bat.
Rayudu believes that Kishan wanted to be a superstar when he already had so many superstars around him at MI. He feels that the wicketkeeper-batter must have found it tough to navigate his way at the five-time IPL-winning franchise.
"But for someone like him [Kishan]," Rayudu said on ESPNcricinfo Time Out, "growing up in a franchise like Mumbai, he wants to be a superstar - he is a superstar in his own right now - but back then to compete against all the stars around him would have been very, very tough.
"Those guys know when to switch on in terms of their game, when to come back. But a lot of these young boys don't know how to switch off and how to switch on. That's a big challenge and I'm sure he has learnt and he has learnt it the hard way."
Kishan scores another half-century, in orange cap race
Kishan was top-scorer for SRH in their clash against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on May 22. From 46 deliveries, he scored 79 runs, including eight fours and three sixes. His knock helped SRH post 255/4 on the board and beat RCB by 55 runs.
In the orange cap race, Kishan is fifth on the list with 569 runs from 14 innings at an average of 40.64 and strike rate of 178.36. He has scored six fifties in the tournament already. Rayudu says that Kishan’s shot selection has improved considerably. Also, the Jharkhand captaincy has had a good effect on him.
"His shot selection has improved big time," Rayudu said. "In his initial years, we have seen him make some wrong decisions in terms of shot selection. But here we saw him making the right call most of the time.
"I think his captaincy for Jharkhand made him realise a lot of things about his own game as well. Sometimes when you get captaincy, people transform into better batsmen and he is one of them who has massively improved in terms of clarity."
Kishan will be next seen in action when SRH go up against the fourth qualifying team in the Eliminator clash on May 27.
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