Emerging as one of the heroes of India’s World Cup triumph in Ahmedabad on Sunday night, it’s been an unimaginable turnaround for the young Ishan Kishan, 27, who was ostracised by the BCCI not too long ago.

He was kept out of the Indian team primarily due to a conflict over his reluctance to play domestic cricket when not on international duties, which also led to losing his central contract in February 2024. He wanted to play on his whims and fancies, but the BCCI came down hard and asked him to restart his career by returning to domestic cricket. He followed the diktat, ultimately leading Jharkhand to their maiden Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 title in late 2025. He made his international comeback in January 2026, after a gap of two years, and was selected for the pre-World Cup T20 series against New Zealand where he delivered a standout performance in the six matches (08, 76, 28, 103, 53), highlighted by a maiden T20I century, to confirm his place in the T20 World Cup squad. He eventually emerged as India’s second-highest run-getter (317 runs) after Sanju Samson (321 runs) at the T20 World Cup. There’s no doubt that the second coming of Kishan has been a big boon to Team India. But more importantly, the mental toughness he developed in the process helped him overcome a personal tragedy on the eve of the summit clash against New Zealand. His cousin sister and brother-in-law passed away in a tragic road accident, and Kishan could have easily pulled out of the final, but showing great resilience, dedication, and commitment, he overcame the grief and pain, and walked onto the field wearing the India jersey.