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Updated July 19th, 2021 at 18:43 IST

Muttiah Muralitharan reckons Ishan Kishan, Prithvi Shaw's fearless batting is 'not new'

Prithvi Shaw and debutant Ishan Kishan came out all guns blazing as the opener struck 43 runs in 23 balls, while the debutant scored 59 in 42 balls in 1st ODI

Reported by: Ujjwal Samrat
Muttiah Muralitharan/Ishan Kishan
Image Credits: @BCCI/@IshanKishan51/@Mahi_Cool7/Twitter | Image:self
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Team India's limited-overs squad on Sunday defeated Sri Lanka in the three-match ODI series in Colombo. With an emphatic by 7 wickets, Team India's limited-overs squad shut critics calling them 'second-string' squad. In terms of batting, skipper Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, and debutant Ishan Kishan outclassed Sri Lanka's bowling attack. Although skipper Shikhar Dhawan played a captain's knock, Prithvi Shaw and Ishan Kishan played a fearless brand of cricket.

Now, Sri Lanka's legendary off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan in a conversation with ESPNcricinfo opined on the fearless brand of cricket played by Prithvi Shaw and Ishan Kishan. 

Muttiah Muralitharan on Ishan Kishan and Prithvi Shaw

Talking about the fearless brand of cricket played by debutant Ishan Kishan and Prithvi Shaw, Muralitharan said, "See these types of brand of cricket Australia has played, Sri Lanka has played, so many countries have played. They continued for almost a decade. Even Australia did the same way because of Mathew Wade, Gilchrist. When Ricky Ponting he just smashes, even Andrew Symonds. So like that caliber of players, I will say it's not new. It's a fashion that has learned from it. And because of IPL, short-form of games, they play a lot of IPL matches every year, these are seasoned campaigners."

"That's how they express themselves and that's what they did. And also you have to understand that Sri Lanka was not competing well. The bowlers looked very ordinary, They did not even look to create chances which made it easy for Indian batsmen. There are also a lot of world-class bowlers in IPL. You come with (Jofra) Archer like fast bowler and so many good spinners like Sunil Narine they have already played. This attack did not look good and therefore they went after them," added Muralitharan. 

Prithvi Shaw and debutant Ishan Kishan came out all guns blazing as the opener struck 43 runs in 23 balls, while the debutant scored 59 in 42 balls.  

India vs Sri Lanka 1st ODI 

Ishan Kishan celebrated his 23rd birthday with a dazzling half-century on debut while Shikhar Dhawan, in his first match as captain, anchored India to a walk-in-the-park seven-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in the opening ODI here on Sunday.

On a track that offered slow turn, the inexperienced Sri Lankan batters splurged like millionaires, throwing away one wicket after another but still managed to get 262 for nine, which wasn't going to be enough against India's batting might.

And it certainly didn't, with the target being achieved in just 36.4 overs. Prithvi Shaw, with his newfound swagger in 50-over cricket, butchered the Sri Lankan pacers during his brief stay by hammering nine boundaries in a 24-ball 43.

That set the pace for Kishan to come in and hit a six off the very first delivery he faced and followed it up with a square-driven boundary. The short Mumbai Indians man then decided to use his bat like a sledgehammer, scoring the second-fastest ODI fifty on debut -- off 33 balls -- to kill the contest inside the first 20 overs.

He did live dangerously getting reprieve twice but his 59 off 42 balls with eight fours and two sixes certainly makes him a strong contender to make it to the final list of 20 for the ICC T20 World Cup.

Veteran Dhawan, who very wisely dropped anchor and let the young guns express themselves, then took over to finish off the match in a professional manner with an unbeaten 86 off 95 balls.

All those years of experience did come in handy as he played second fiddle to Shaw in an opening stand of 58 in 5.3 overs and during a second-wicket partnership of 85 with Kishan in only 12.2 overs.

India's bowlers were disciplined for the better part, without being exceptional, as Kuldeep Yadav (2/48 in 9 overs) and Yuzvendra Chahal (2/52 in 10 overs) got their share of wickets.

And then Krunal Pandya's (1/26 in 10 overs) nagging accuracy made run-scoring an arduous task in the middle-overs before Karunaratne (43 no off 35 balls) played a cameo to take the home team past 250 with two huge sixes off Bhuvneshwar Kumar's (0/63 in 9 overs) bowling.

(Image Credits: @BCCI/@IshanKishan51/@Mahi_Cool7/Twitter)

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Published July 19th, 2021 at 17:47 IST

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