T20 World Cup warm-up: Ishan Kishan seals opener’s slot with blitz against South Africa

NAVI MUMBAI: It may have just been just a warm-up match, but the message coming out from the Indian dressing room was loud and clear. Ishan Kishan, in red-hot form currently, will open for India in the 2026 T20 World Cup, ahead of the struggling Sanju Samson.

On Wednesday night at the DY Patil Stadium here, Kishan cleared the audition to start along with Abhishek Sharma at the top with flying colours, smashing a blistering 20-ball 53 in a World Cup tune-up against South Africa. His knock included as many as seven cleanly-struck sixes and a couple of fours.



Choosing to bat first, India raced away to 240 for five, with their in-form batters blasting 19 sixes. The hosts then restricted South Africa to 210 for seven to log a 30-run win in the high-scoring encounter.

Samson’s fate seemed to have been sealed at the toss itself, when skipper Suryakumar Yadav made it clear that he wanted to try Kishan in the opener’s role. Kishan seized the opportunity brilliantly, unleashing all his nine boundaries within the first six overs, thus maximising the Powerplay overs and giving the 45,000 capacity crowd that turned up plenty to cheer about.

The explosive left-hander retired after the Powerplay, allowing Tilak Varma to get some valuable batting practice ahead of the tournament. Following up on his 38 for India ‘A’ at the same venue on Monday against USA, Varma hammered 45 off just 19 balls, carting three sixes and as many fours.

Kishan earned his promotion to the opener role after displaying spectacular form in the five-match home T20I series against New Zealand, where he scored 215 runs in four matches at a strike rate of 231.20, including a 42-ball century in the final game in Thiruvananthapuram while batting at No 3. It helped the Ranchi ’keeper-batter that Samson was woefully out of form, having scored merely 46 runs in five matches at an average of just 9.20 and a strike rate of 135.30 in the same series.

Taking the attack to South Africa with a fearless display at the very start, Kishan smashed two sixes in the first over of the match, bowled by Lungi Ngidi.

Brief scores: India 240/5 (I Kishan 53, T Varma 45) beat South Africa 210/7 (R Rickelton 44, T Stubbs 45*; A Sharma 2/32) by 30 runs.


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