Ishan Kishan with Shubman Gill in Test colours | PC- AFP
Ishan Kishan has started off his Duleep Trophy 2026 season on a triumphant note. Leading the East Zone cricket team in the first quarterfinal of the tournament, Ishan and co. secured a comprehensive innings win by 210 runs against the North East Zone in Bengaluru.
Speaking after the match, the Indian wicketkeeper-batter has now demonstrated his love for Test cricket and expressed his willingness in re-joining the national Test side.
Ishan Kishan wants to play for Team India in Test cricket again
Ishan Kishan is eager to grace the Indian Test whites again, as per his own admission on Tuesday, August 25 after leading the East Zone team to a comprehensive win in their opening match of the 2026 Duleep Trophy season.
The cricketer said that he enjoys playing red-ball cricket, even though his playing style is quite reminiscent to India’s white-ball standards.
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While speaking after the match, he said “I would 100% love to be part of the Indian Test team. Anyone who has played Test cricket would love this format. People don’t believe me, but I really do enjoy red-ball cricket. My only job is to score runs and make my team win.”
When was the last time Ishan Kishan played Test cricket for India?
Ishan Kishan was selected in Team India squad for their two-match Test series in the West Indies back in July 2023. Making his Test debut alongside opening batter Yashasvi Jaiswal, the cricketer played both matches of the series and scored 78 runs in three innings at an average of 78.
The belligerent wicketkeeper-batter blasted a fiery 34-ball 52* in the second Indian innings of the series-decider at Port of Spain. Notably, the innings also turned out to be his last Test outing with the bat for Team India as the selection committee preferred KL Rahul as India’s wicketkeeper-batter later that year in South Africa.
What is Ishan Kishan’s record in first-class cricket?
Ishan Kishan is one of the most exciting wicketkeeper-batters in the country, especially in T20 cricket. The multi-IPL winner was an integral member of Team India squad earlier this year that lifted the 2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
He punched out a match-winning fifty in the final and unleashed a ‘Player of the Match’ performance against Pakistan in the group stage.
The left-hander is also one of the few batters in the world to have charted an ODI double century.
Holding an enhanced reputation in white-ball cricket, Ishan is also a veteran of 65 first-class matches, mostly for the Jharkhand cricket team.
He has aggregated 3,897 runs in 106 innings so far in his career at an average of 39.36, plundering nine hundreds and 19 half-centuries in the process.
As of now, it remains to be seen if Ishan Kishan can find his way back into the national Test side, as Team India heads into the decisive stage of the 2025-27 WTC cycle.
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