One state. Two iconic talents. A mountain of excellence to climb, but Ishan Kishan’s career graph says it won’t take much time for a new Jharkhand hero to emerge after MS Dhoni.

A serial run-hitter like Dhoni. Check. A wicket-keeper batter. Double-check. Breaking records in limited-overs and List-A cricket. Triple-check. Test cricket. Loading….

With a Test debut not too far away, we go down memory lane to revisit the Pocket Dynamo’s journey in First-Class cricket.

Prologue to the Pocket Dynamo

Kishan, the son of Pranav Kumar Pandey and Suchitra Singh - made baby steps into cricket as early as 2005. While the family took a young Ishan to see how the older sibling - Raj Kishan - was performing at a cricket selection camp, Uttam Majumdar would identify Ishan as his protege.

“Kuch bhi karna, aapke ladke ka cricket band mat karna! (do anything but don’t stop the boy’s cricket)” is what Majumdar told Kishan Sr. It was here where it all began. “My main aim was to make him a good back-foot player. If Ishan had to succeed at the top, he has to be good at playing on the back foot,” Majumdar said in an interview with The Indian Express.

Between ages 7 to 11, Majumdar would be impressed with Ishan’s never-say-die attitude. “Many times while playing the pull, he would get hit but would never cry; he would sip some water and start again.” 

When he turned 12, Ishan and his family opted for a change of scenery and moved from Bihar to Jharkhand. After some early life lessons with the SAIL (Steel Authority of India Ltd.) team in a district cricket tournament in Ranchi, Ishan would take positive strides and eventually earn his first big breakthrough - a call-up to the Jharkhand Ranji squad against Assam in 2014.

The first dance, the first century and a first-class achievement

2014/15: Opening the batting, the then-15-year-old southpaw scored 60 runs in 126 balls while belting nine boundary fours against Assam. This was an early indicator of a left-handed wicket-keeper batter with the flair of a certain Adam Gilchrist to send the cricket ball across fences. Three games later, our Pocket Dynamo would slam half-centuries in both innings - 66 and 84 - against Hyderabad. This was a sign that *something* was cooking in Indian cricket.

2015/16: He would take things up a notch in the Ranji clash against Saurashtra, where he passed 500 First-Class runs when batting on 36, marched to his half-century within 47 minutes of his time at the crease and then surpassed his personal best with a score of 87 in 69 balls.

In November 2015, Ishan hit the nitro boost switch with a 124-ball 109 in the first innings against Jammu and Kashmir. Within a year, the Southpaw would only break past his limits as he achieved his best score in red-ball cricket not once but twice.

2016/17: Facing a Karnataka bowling unit that boasted of R Vinay Kumar and Krishnappa Gowtham, Kishan ran rampant with an unbeaten 159 in the first innings. While the match ended all square, the innings was a prelude for something I-shan-daar.

Batting at number six, he went berserk against Delhi. In an innings lasting 418 minutes, the left-hander struck 35 boundaries (21 fours, 14 sixes) to script a career-best score of 273. At the time of the game, he went down in the books with the highest individual knock by a Jharkhand player, surpassing Saurabh Tiwary (238, 2013/14). With 799 runs in 10 games, he found a place in India A’s squad vs Australians during the Aussies tour of India in 2016/17.

2017/18: Another spectacular Ranji campaign! While he didn’t notch up a triple-figure score, he ended up as Jharkhand's leading run-getter with 484 runs at an average of 44 and four half-tons along the way.

2019/20: Featuring for the Rest of India side in the 2018/19 Irani Cup, he would finally get his Duleep Trophy redemption. More so than the bat, the Pocket Dynamo excelled with the gloves as he had a hand in five dismissals (five caught - two in the first innings, three in the second innings).

2020-present: Beginning with the 2019/20 Ranji Trophy season, the FC appearances went down, owing to his gradual rise as a top performer in List A cricket and him being away on national duty.

2023 brought in some fresh excitement in the Kishan household after the Southpaw earned a maiden call-up to India’s Test team for the 2023 Border Gavaskar Trophy against Australia. He would also be a stand-by in the squad that played the 2021-23 WTC final.

In a conversation with team-mate Shubman Gill, Ishan shared an anecdote on how his father was a significant force in his aspirations to play red-ball cricket.

“When I was playing white ball, he (Ishan’s father) used to keep reminding me about how Test cricket is the real cricket, where a batsman faces real challenges and his skill sets are tested. To play at that level is a big thing. I was very happy when I got the news of my Test call-up and if I get the chance, I will try to perform well for the team,” he said.

With 2985 runs in 48 first-class matches, we are confident that it is only a matter of time before we see Ishan Kishan don the Test cap for India. With the support of our MI Paltan, our man is poised to script a legacy of his own!