Sure-shot opener for India at the World Cup 2022 – Brett Lee on Ishan Kishan

Former Australian gun fast bowler Brett Lee reckons Ishan Kishan should be one of India’s openers in the 2023 World Cup. Lee feels the wicket-keeper bat should maintain his fitness to stake a claim in the Indian team.

Kishan scored a magnum opus knock of 210 runs against Bangladesh in the third ODI while replacing the injured Rohit Sharma in the playing XI. The left-hander added a gargantuan alliance of 227 runs with Virat Kohli to help India post a massive total of 409 runs on the board.

The southpaw became the fourth Indian batter after Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Rohit Sharma to score a double century. Thus, with this massive knock, Kishan was able to get up in the pecking order for the next World Cup.

Brett Lee said on his YouTube Channel, “With this deadly double, Ishan has staked a strong claim to open for India in the ODI World Cup at home in 2023. Will this happen? I don’t know. Should it happen? Hell yeah, it should. The guy just scored the fastest 200 in ODI history.

“But if he can show consistency, stay fit, and be around the next few months, he should be a sure-shot opener for India at the World Cup.”

Lee advised Kishan to move on from the milestone and focus his energy on the future matches to make a mark for himself.

“Back Ishan to make it in the World Cup squad with an eye on the future and clearly, he would be on a high after that knock as he should be. However, a word of caution. Too much praise has led to cobwebs in the head.

“So my advice to Ishan Kishan would be… forget about the milestone, forget about the double hundred as soon as you can. There are bigger milestones to achieve, higher peaks to scale.”

Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan are expected to be India’s first choice openers in the 2023 World Cup. But, Dhawan hasn’t been in the best of forms in the recent past.

India will take on Sri Lanka in their next white-ball series assignment.