Three weeks. That’s all the break that the breathless fans of Indian cricket have been afforded. Three weeks to savour an unprecedented third T20 World Cup title, three weeks to mentally brace for Season 19 of the world’s most vibrant T20 league.
For the first time since its inception in 2008, all teams in the Indian Premier League (IPL) will kick off their campaigns under Indian captains. The Perfect Ten was completed last week when Sunrisers Hyderabad named Ishan Kishan as their interim skipper, tasked with steering the ship till regular leader Pat Cummins returns to match play.
The captaincy of a franchise with whom he is only in his second season completes a fairytale last few months for the 27-year-old from Patna, whose career seemed to have hit self-erected roadblocks even as recently as six months ago. A series of happy accidents (from his point of view) has reignited the fire and thrust him into the spotlight like never before. Clearly, Kishan, now a more mature but fundamentally uncorrupted version of his previous happy-go-lucky self, realises that fortune has smiled benevolently on him, and he is determined not to look the gift horse in the mouth any longer.
Having played himself out of a central contract with his churlish, petulant stand at the beginning of 2024, Kishan took time to regain his equilibrium. Today, when he speaks, it is with clarity and earnestness; he says the right things, but you don’t sense any hollowness in his words; you don’t ever feel that he has rehearsed and perfected the art of being politically correct. When he says he only fools around ‘three or four hours a day, not 24×7 like earlier’, the twinkle is unmistakable, the cheekiness very much intact.
Just as well. Cricket needs characters, and there are too many automatons floating around. Kishan is a character if ever there was one, a trait he shares with the man whom he idolises and whom he has learnt a lot from, as much by watching and observing as by talking and being spoken to.
Kishan is still in the early stages of his international career – just a fortnight ago, he completed five years as an India player – and clearly has benefited hugely from a master of his time, a master of the white-ball game, and once a fabulous Test batter who slipped a far bit from the dizzying heights he had scaled in his last five years in the five-day game. Virat Kohli has been there and done that; until 10 months back, the only medal missing was an IPL winner’s. That anomaly was corrected on June 3 when, in their 18th attempt, Royal Challengers Bengaluru finally scaled the summit as their talismanic No. 1 finally breathed a huge sigh. Of elation, undoubtedly, but also immense relief.
Kohli had to wait until his final T20 World Cup, in the Americas in 2024, to finally be part of the champion roster, while Kishan tasted success in his very first attempt, earlier this month. The former had a tournament to forget 21 months back until striking form in the match that mattered, walking away with the Player of the Final honours for his 76. By contrast, following an unexpected late call-up, Kishan lit up this World Cup, finishing as his team’s second highest run-getter, taking bowling attacks apart and leaving his stamp on the title clash too, when he raced to his half-century off just 23 deliveries against New Zealand.
That’s what you call a comeback!
For Kishan, the trick will be to continue the grand run that first facilitated his international comeback. The journey began at the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy – some would say in IPL 2025, when he smacked a century on his SRH debut – as he steered Jharkhand to a maiden title, with a hundred in the final the icing on the cake. He is now hot property, the captaincy an acknowledgement that he is no longer a greenhorn but a senior and a leader in his own right. This is a great opportunity for the likeable young man to showcase his nous, awareness and tactical skills. At some stage in the near future, the Indian T20I captaincy will open up; Kishan will do his cause no harm at all if he can catch the eyes of those that matter while ensuring that his bat continues to remain red-hot.
While Kishan has so much riding on IPL 2026, it would appear as if that isn’t quite the case with Kohli. Like Rohit Sharma, this is Kohli’s first IPL as a one-format international – both seasoned campaigners announced their Test retirements midway through IPL 2025. Kohli is by a distance the league’s leading run-maker (8,661) and has scored more tons (8) than anyone else. He is a force of nature, even at 37, and therefore, while there may not seem to be too much to play for from an outside perspective, anyone who has even briefly been touched by the Kohli magic will realise that that’s not how he approaches any game of cricket.
The fire is clearly burning as bright as ever. One of Kohli’s great attributes – and he has several – is his uber professionalism and unwavering commitment to the cause. Over the last ten days or so, he has been hard at work at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, where, coincidentally, holders Royal Challengers Bengaluru host Kishan’s SRH in the opening clash of IPL 2026 on Saturday. There has been no evidence that he hasn’t played a match since January 18 (the last of three ODIs against New Zealand in Indore), no residual rust, no tentativeness of hands, no uncertainty of feet movement. The challenges of being a one-format international with limited game time seem to have passed him by.
“I’ve been watching Virat really closely,” acknowledged RCB head coach Andy Flower, the former Zimbabwe captain. “He looks on top of his game. He looks super fit. I was watching him do shuttles the other day. He was light on his feet, very fit, very lean, very hungry. He’s always been very hungry and determined.
“The mental and emotional space that he’s in, where he’s very comfortable with himself as a person, but he’s also very hungry to drive himself as a professional sportsperson — he’s in a really good spot. Watching him time the ball and strike the ball in training, he’s at the peak of his powers. He’s aware of the fact that he’s playing less, but at the moment, he looks at the top of his game.”
This isn’t just a head coach talking up his star performer. It’s one champion recognising and complimenting another. Now, that’s something for Kishan to aim for.
