New Delhi, May 23 (IANS) Former India batter Ambati Rayudu praised Ishan Kishan’s growth and improved maturity after the wicketkeeper-batter guided Sunrisers Hyderabad to a crucial win over Royal Challengers Bengaluru in their recently concluded IPL 2026 game with a match-winning 79-run knock.

Kishan, who won the Player of the Match award, anchored SRH’s chase with a composed yet aggressive innings, continuing his strong season for Hyderabad in a campaign built around fearless batting and Rayudu opined that captaining Jharkhan in domestic cricket gave him clarity and helped him transform into a better batter.

Speaking after the game, Rayudu reflected on Kishan’s journey from the highly competitive environment at the Mumbai Indians.

“For someone like him (Kishan), growing up in a franchise like Mumbai, he wants to be a superstar – he is a superstar in his own right now – but back then to compete against all the stars around him would have been very, very tough,” Rayudu told ESPNCricinfo.

Rayudu also highlighted the mental challenges young cricketers face while handling pressure and expectations in franchise cricket.

“Those guys know when to switch on in terms of their game, when to come back. But a lot of these young boys don’t know how to switch off or switch on. That’s a big challenge and I’m sure he has learnt and he has learnt it the hard way,” he said.

The former Chennai Super Kings batter credited Kishan’s improved decision-making and discipline for his recent consistency.

“His shot selection has improved big time. In his initial years, we have seen him make some wrong decisions in terms of shot selection. But here we saw him making the right call most of the time,” Rayudu noted.

He further added that Kishan’s captaincy stint with the Jharkhand cricket team has played a major role in shaping his batting approach, saying, “I think his captaincy for Jharkhand made him realise a lot of things about his own game as well. Sometimes when you get captaincy, people transform into better batsmen and he is one of them who has massively improved in terms of clarity.”

–IANS

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