India batter Ishan Kishan revealed that he wasn’t in a proper headspace in the build up to the T20 World Cup final because just days before the summit clash, he had learnt about the death of his cousin sister in an accident. While the news weighed heavily on his psyche, Kishan said he decided to channel these turbulent feelings he was having into a focussed batting effort.
Kishan played a vital hand in India’s World Cup triumph scoring a quickfire fifty and also took 3 catches against New Zealand in the final, helping the Men in Blue to successfully defend their title.
“To be very honest, before the game I was not planning to say this, but I’ll say it. My cousin sister passed away in a car accident and I got to know about it a few days back. She always wanted me to score big runs. I was not feeling so good yesterday but today was a big day, so rather than keeping my emotions above the game, I thought the best thing I could do was score runs for her,” Kishan said after the final.
“When I looked up after scoring my fifty, it was for her. It was like saying this is for my sister. I’m very proud that we won today. I feel for her family but my close friends are there to take care. There was a lot going on inside me today and I just wanted to perform,” he added.
Kishan admitted that the emotional weight made the build-up to the match difficult but he reminded himself of the team’s needs.
“Since last night I was not feeling alright and I kept thinking about what had happened. But at the end of the day you have to keep the team ahead because cricket is not an individual sport. I was just looking to score as many runs as possible even though there were questions in my mind about why bad things happen to good people.”
