India’s former batter Sanjay Manjrekar believes Ishan Kishan will not feel the pressure of INR 15.25 crores price tag while playing for five-time champions Mumbai Indians.
Kishan has played for Mumbai Indians in the past and Manjrekar feels he will not have any issues in hitting the ground running at the franchise.
Kishan has shown the promise to go a long way in his career and it was expected that he will bag a huge price in the IPL auction. The southpaw has amassed 1452 runs in 56 IPL innings at an average of 28.47 and a strike rate of 136.34.
In fact, Mumbai Indians team owner Akash Ambani also stated that they wanted to go big for Ishan Kishan and they really wanted to retain him.
“I don’t think the price tag will affect him too much because the team has shown great faith in him. I am sure it’s something they would have told him,” Sanjay Manrjrekar told Star Sports.
“When we talk bout huge price tags, bringing a lot of pressure, the player feels the pressure when the team is gambling on him. Someone like Nicholas Pooran (Rs 10.75 crore by SunRisers Hyderabad) can feel pressure.
Manjrekar gave the example of Yuvraj Singh, who was bought for a huge amount of INR 14 crores by RCB. However, Yuvraj was not at the peak of his powers at that stage.
“We saw how Yuvraj Singh when he was sold for Rs 14 crore again, his own confidence went down. He was on the slide, Ishan Kishan is at the peak of the powers. He is at the same franchise, I don’t think the price tag is going to affect him. I don’t think Ishan Kishan will feel the pressure at all.”
Manjrekar added that the five-time champions Mumbai Indians would have retained Ishan Kishan if the teams could have retained five players before the auction.
“Clearly what you can see is they retained four players. Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah and Kieron Pollard. If they could retain 5, they would have retained Ishan Kishan. They were desperate to retain him but they couldn’t. But they were like ‘come what may, we will buy him back from the market’.
“So now Ishan Kishan is going to be part of a team where he feels really wanted,” he added.
