Over the years, since the inception of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the cash-rich tournament proved to be a pedestal of instant success for aspiring cricketers.
Thus, the much-awaited ‘auction day’ of IPL is similar to the day of results of academic examinations for several budding cricketers and their parents.
The pressure of expectations can be overwhelming sometimes for both the cricketer as well as the parent.
Such was the case with India’s U19 star, Ishan Kishan’s father, Pranav Pandey, who got himself admitted to hospital, in nervousness on the ‘auction day’.
“Both my sons have played cricket. While the elder one eventually went on to become a doctor, Ishaan played professionally. When they were younger, my business was still small, so managing with two cricket-playing young kids was hard. So when the auction started, everything hit me all at once, and my BP shot through the roof!” recalled Pranav during the recent episode of ‘Spicy Pitch’.
“My dad was in the hospital, all hooked up to the BP machine. He suddenly got a call and found out about how the auction turned out. He took the machine off and told the doctor he was ready to go home! ‘I’ll be fine now,’ he said and just left and came home,” said Kishan.
Kishan came into the reckoning after leading India during the 2016 U19 World Cup in Bangladesh. Shortly after, he was bagged by the now-disbanded Gujarat Lions, where he featured for a couple of seasons.
After developing a reputation of being a flamboyant wicket-keeping batsman, Mumbai Indians were quick to grab hold of his services for a whopping sum of INR 6.2 crores, much to the respite of his father.
Looking forward, Kishan aims to feature for the Indian side at the highest level. The 21-year-old has already grown leaps and bounds in stature, after representing India ‘A’ team, during important New Zealand’ A’, South Africa’ A’ and England’ A’ tours.
“This is just the beginning for me. My dream is to play for India — to play consistently and to play match-winning innings. When I do this time, and again, I will finally be able to say I have reached somewhere,” Ishan added.
