In brief
Ishan Kishan’s first-day century gave Jharkhand a foothold in their opening Ranji Trophy fixture against Tamil Nadu. The captain walked in at 79 for 3 on a seaming surface in Coimbatore and batted through to stumps for 125* (183 balls), lifting his side to a more secure 307 for 6 alongside the assured Sahil Raj.
Key moments
• Jharkhand lost three wickets in the first session and another immediately after lunch.
• Kishan and Raj added an unbroken 150 for the seventh wicket.
• The left-hander struck only seven fours and two sixes, a deliberate brake on his usual tempo.
Talking after play, he set out the thinking behind the restraint.
“At this stage, I need to be very smart,” he said. “You need to understand the importance of the Ranji Trophy. You need to understand the importance of these matches when you play against big teams.”
Experience over impulse
Kishan, 27 now, has built a reputation for all-or-nothing stroke-play in white-ball cricket. First-class pitches can punish that approach, and he admitted he has been stung before.
“You make so many mistakes initially in your career and then later you realise the real meaning of experience,” he reflected. “You have to be in the middle and only then you can change the game.”
One small detail offered a glimpse into his calculation. “I was checking the wind when the left-arm spinner was bowling. I really wanted to go hard against him. But looking at the scoreboard, six wickets down did not feel right for me.” In the end he chose patience: “I was actually wanting to go for sixes. But the situation demanded otherwise. This comes with experience. When you play enough matches, you understand sometimes that singles are more important than sixes and over a period of time, your mindset changes. A partnership was important to make their bowlers tired.”
No targets, just time in the middle
There is another change. Kishan said he has stopped chasing numerical goals: “Whenever I go in with a target, I just do very badly. So let’s not keep any target this season. Just keep on batting.” It is a mantra he repeated, word for word, when asked to clarify: “Whenever I go in with a target, I just do very badly. I just do something which is not important. So let’s not keep any target this season. Just keep on batting. If you are in the middle, you will get as many runs as you want. That’s the only goal for me.”
Recent road travelled
Over the winter Kishan enjoyed a short county stint with Nottinghamshire, posting scores of 77 and 87 on pitches that asked similar technical questions. A possible Test call-up for India’s Oval match in September followed when Rishabh Pant was ruled out, but an e-bike accident in the UK left him bruised and unavailable. N Jagadeesan and Dhruv Jurel filled the wicketkeeping roles instead. Kishan returned to action just in time for the Irani Cup earlier this month, using that game to fine-tune before the Ranji season.
What it means
Jharkhand’s lower order still has work to do on the second morning, yet a total beyond 350 now looks attainable—valuable on a surface offering seam movement and, by late afternoon, a hint of turn. For Tamil Nadu, the task is to reset quickly; their seamers, lively in the first session, faded once the ball softened and the partnership grew.
Expert view
Former India opener Abhinav Mukund, on local commentary, noted the shift in tempo. “Kishan’s first fifty took 96 balls, his second only 55. He waited for the bowlers to tire, then forced them to change fields. That’s good old-fashioned first-class batting.”
Where next
Play resumes at 9.30 am. If Kishan can shepherd the tail for another hour, the visitors will feel they have won the day twice over: first by surviving, then by dictating. Tamil Nadu, still well in the contest, need early breakthroughs or risk chasing the game.
A quietly satisfying start, then, for a keeper-batter who—temporarily at least—has shelved the crash-bang and chosen the long route to runs.
