Former Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, who played for Mumbai Indians for a long period of time in the IPL and also captained them to a Champions League title, has said that the franchise should buy back the left-handed wicketkeeper-batsman Ishan Kishan in the upcoming mega auction as he is going to be a big “future star”.
Ishan Kishan had played a major role in Mumbai Indians’ title-winning campaign in 2020, as he had ended the tournament with the most number of sixes, but he couldn’t quite replicate that in the next season and his failure in the middle order was one of the reasons why the Mumbai Indians struggled to achieve the results in 2021 that they had achieved in 2020.
Although Kishan found his form towards the end of the tournament when he was slotted at the opening position and he scored back to back fifties, but it was too late by then and Mumbai had already reached the verge of elimination.
When the teams were releasing their retentions ahead of this year’s mega auction, it was expected that Ishan Kishan would be one of the 4 players Mumbai would retain and Ishan was actually in Mumbai’s plans as well, but at the last moment, the Mumbai management decided to retain Suryakumar Yadav.
Ishan was then on the radar of the new Ahmedabad franchise as they wanted him to sign him from the draft which was specifically put in place for Lucknow and Ahmedabad, but probably the two parties didn’t reach an agreement on salary and Ishan is eventually now in the mega auction.
Harbhajan Singh quoted the tweet Mumbai Indians and answered their question
There is going to be a lot of interest for Ishan in the mega auction, but Harbhajan Singh wants Mumbai to go for the left-hander as well. The Mumbai Indians had asked their fans on Twitter to name one player they want the franchise to bid for. Harbhajan quoted that tweet and wrote “Ishan Kishan future big star”.
Ishan Kishan future big star ⭐️ https://t.co/pfOarrwbdN
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) February 3, 2022
The reason why a lot of franchises will come for Ishan is because of the prospects that he brings with himself. He has only just started his international career and barring any injuries, he is likely to serve India in white-ball cricket for a long time.
Also, he is one of those players who can not just open the batting but can also play in the middle order as he has done for Mumbai Indians for the last 4 years.