Mumbai Indians’ (MI) carefree wicket-keeper batsman, Ishan Kishan, has recalled the time he first met legendary Indian batsman, Sachin Tendulkar, for the first time during the training camp.
Kishan’s name came into prominence after captaining the Indian team in the 2016 U19 World Cup. Since then, he has grown leaps and bound in stature, going on to represent India ‘A’.
The IPL giants, MI, picked him at a whopping sum of INR 5.5 crores during the 2018 auctions. The then-teenager recalled being awestruck when he got the opportunity to meet Sachin for the first time.
“I still remember the time when I first met Sachin paaji (Tendulkar). He had come to see our practise session at Mumbai Indians. It was just after I got signed. I had been chatting with Rohit bhai (Sharma) and told him about how I worshipped Sachin paaji all these years and now, suddenly he is in front of me,” Kishan said on the recent episode of ‘Spicy Pitch’.
During the chat show, Kishan went on to state that he hardly heard anything Sachin spoke and was gazing at his talk.
“Rohit bhai told me to go and have a chat. Fortunately, Sachin paaji himself came towards me to have a talk. I don’t think I heard anything that he spoke. I was just watching him speak,” added Kishan.
The flamboyant stroke maker has accumulated 695 runs since making his IPL debut in 2016 for the now-disbanded Gujarat Lions.
“From my childhood, I just loved to play shots. Never really liked to leave the ball or defend it. Always loved to attack and liked the sound the ball made off the bat. I never got ruffled by the bowler’s height or pace. For me, it was always about where the bowler was going to land it, and how I would tackle that,” Kishan concluded.
