Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: India wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan has dedicated his side’s T20 World Cup victory to his late cousin sister, revealing that she and his brother-in-law died in a car accident a day before the final took place at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
In the final, Kishan hit 54 and was one of the architects in India getting a 96-run win over New Zealand to clinch their third T20 World Cup title. “To be honest, before the game, I lost my cousin sister in a car accident. I played well for her. I spoke to Hardik Bhai; he said to put the team ahead. I dedicate this win to her, and this was on Women’s Day, so it makes it all the more special,” Kishan told reporters in the mixed zone interaction.
Kishan had battled his way back into the national side after being out of the team for nearly two years and now saw himself finishing as India’s second-highest run-scorer in the tournament behind Sanju Samson. While reflecting on his journey back into the team, Kishan cited Virat Kohli’s example as a guiding principle for himself.
“In these two years, the biggest thing I learned was to just keep doing your job; don’t think about the results. The skills don’t change much. If I scored a 200 before, the skills were there then and they are there now. But what matters is your approach. How much hunger do you have?
“If you remove the fear of failure and doubt, you only focus on staying in the present. In these two years I have learned one thing: I have stopped overthinking. I don’t even think about where my name will come up, whether it will come up or not. I think it’s not in my hands, and if I think about these things and then look at the team and see my name isn’t there, it will just hurt me.
