New Delhi: Ishan Kishan Now he is living his dream. He waited for his opportunity, and when it came, he grabbed it with both hands. He’s done well and is now reaping the rewards of his hard work. Ishan won the 2026 T20 World Cup, won the Man of the Match award twice and was named captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad.SRH will kick off the IPL 2026 season on March 28 against defending champions Royal Challengers Bangalore at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
SRH on Wednesday shared a video in which Ishan talked about his new challenge – leading the team.“I’m very overwhelmed and I’m excited to get the opportunity to lead this team. And, to be honest, I’m going to keep it simple and not do too much because when players come for the IPL, I think they are all very good players. You just have to make sure they are on the right track,” Ishan said.“After a few innings, their mentality doesn’t change, running around. The rest is, you know, it’s going to be a good season and I think, we’re going to do it together. I think there’s a lot, a lot of learning in this season because I will tell you, one thing I’ve learned over the last few years, the most important thing for a cricketer is to maintain a really good headspace throughout the season,” he added.“So, for most of the season we make sure we just stay in the moment, we just keep it simple and work as hard as we can before the game. But during the game we just enjoy it and take it one game at a time,” he added.Ishan performed well in the 2026 T20 World Cup, scoring 317 runs at an average of 35.22 and a strike rate of over 193.“I feel like, it’s the best few days of my life because, you know, suddenly joining the team and winning the World Cup with the team, so it’s one of the best moments. Because, you know, there’s a lot of hard work going on. The players, some of them were out of form but when the time came, when it was needed most, everyone played their best cricket. We’re just trying to do the best we can as a team and I think we’ve all achieved great things this season,” he said.Ishan also spoke about the power of performance, saying he always believed he would make a comeback.“When I wasn’t on the team, there was no – I mean, how do I explain it? There was always a feeling that I was going to be on the team no matter what because I knew the effort I was putting in was going to be the most important. And you know, you always have to believe in yourself,” he said.It was the domestic grind that helped Ishan carve a path to T20I cricket’s biggest prize, as he led Jharkhand to their maiden Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) title last year and topped the list with 517 runs (including two hundreds and two fifties) in 10 innings.“It’s going to be a message that I feel a lot of people, whoever is lost, or who doesn’t believe in themselves, they should know that they should believe and keep trying. Things will change,” he concluded.
