NEW DELHI: When Ishan Kishan walks out to bat, the image that usually comes to mind is that of a left-handed batter hitting big sixes, playing brutal pull shots and putting bowlers under pressure. Kishan is known for his aggressive style in white-ball cricket. But on Tuesday, the 28-year-old made it clear that he also loves the challenge of red-ball cricket.The East Zone captain led his team to a massive innings and 210-run win over North East Zone at the BCCI Centre of Excellence Ground 2 in Bengaluru.“I enjoy red-ball [cricket] very much. I think people don’t believe me when I say that smiles, but it’s, I’m being very honest, I really do enjoy red-ball cricket,” Kishan told Cricinfo.Kishan has played 32 ODIs and 55 T20Is for India, apart from 134 IPL matches. His last of two Test appearances came in July 2023. Despite his limited opportunities in Test cricket, his love for the red-ball format remains strong.“It’s always fun to be part of it because I love that challenge when, you know, yes, it’s easier to bat on flat tracks and it’s fun as well, but the competition which goes around in Test match[es] is some different-level thing,” he said.The match against North East Zone was Kishan’s 65th first-class appearance. His previous first-class game was against Baroda in the Ranji Trophy in November 2025. In the nine months between the two matches, Kishan played 59 games across international and domestic cricket, including the IPL.As someone who has played plenty of white-ball cricket, he admitted that moving back to the red ball was not easy.“Situations will get tricky,” he said in Bengaluru, where the Duleep Trophy is being held. “It will not be easy for us as players to just move around from white ball to red ball, red ball to white ball; change of format, change of gameplay, but that is the fun part about this game,” Kishan said.He spoke about the pressure and challenges that players deal with away from the field.“You need to understand, as a sportsman, life can be harsh on us. It just looks very simple, like [a] player just comes here, plays their matches, and they leave. It’s not like that. They go around, they keep on thinking, there’s so much going on in their head every time.”But Kishan believes players cannot keep making excuses if they want to succeed.“If you want to make it big,” Kishan said, “you want to make it count, you can’t have many excuses. But at the same time, I feel you should just think about getting better and not cry about things which you cannot control.”
Kishan on his four-run dismissal
Kishan’s innings in the match lasted only four runs. He reached out for a wide ball and tried to guide it behind point before being caught behind.The wicketkeeper-batter admitted that the shot came naturally and he immediately regretted playing it.“I was in the middle of the shot, and I was like ‘what the heck I was trying to do!’ I should know this is [a] Test [first-class] match and I need to leave a few balls. So I was thinking like that, but when you don’t practice so much, especially when the red ball is there [things can happen].”Kishan explained how thinking too much about not playing a shot led him to do exactly that.“Sometimes when you think about something that you don’t want to do, you end up doing it. I did not want to go to the ball and just play. So I ended up doing the same thing because I was thinking like I don’t want to do it. I was just attracting those thoughts, which was not meant to happen, but yeah [it happened anyway].”
Anukul Roy’s five-for seals a big win
Coming back to the match, East Zone scored 467 in their first innings and then bowled North East Zone out for 111 to enforce the follow-on. North East Zone resumed Tuesday at 7 for 0. According to Kishan, East Zone’s spinners were getting turn from the pitch but not much bounce. Anukul Roy picked up a five-wicket haul as North East Zone were bowled out for 146 in 50 overs. The result gave East Zone a massive innings and 210-run victory.
‘We’ll have to be on our toes’
The 2026-27 domestic red-ball season has given Kishan a fresh start, but the long break was also visible. Despite the huge victory, Kishan was not happy with East Zone’s energy on the field. He wants the team to improve when they face Central Zone in the semi-final, starting on August 30.“We played after a very long time, this match, but I feel the energy was not up to the mark,” Kishan said, “but it can happen in these matches.“When we are going to play the next match, we’ll have to be on our toes. We’ll have to put effort, we [will] have to fight for each and every wicket. So, we’ll look into it. We’ll talk, we’ll have a meeting, and we’ll try and put up a good show in the next game.”