Didn’t hear a word he said: Ishan Kishan narrates his fanboy moment around Sachin Tendulkar

The 21-year-old recalled his first meeting with Tendulkar and how he was bowled over by the legend’s presence,

Wicketkeeper batsman Ishan Kishan recalls how he was pretty much left stumped after meeting the great Sachin Tendulkar for the first time. A young Kishan was signed by Mumbai Indians for Rs 6.2 crore at the 2018 IPL auction and it was during one of his early training sessions with the team that 21-year-old had his fan-boy moment with Tendulkar.

Ishan Kishan (L) remembers being overwhelmed during his first meeting with Sachin Tendulkar (Instagram/Getty)

“I still remember the time when I first met Sachin paaji (Tendulkar). He had come to see our practise session at Mumbai Indians. It was just after I got signed. I had been chatting with Rohit bhai (Sharma) and told him about how I worshipped Sachin paaji all these years and now, suddenly he is in front of me,” Kishan was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.

“Rohit bhai told me to go and have a chat. Fortunately, Sachin paaji himself came towards me to have a talk. I don’t think I heard anything that he spoke, I was just watching him speak.”

The year he was brought by MI, Kishan was the leading run-scorer for Jharkhand in the 2018-19 Vijay Hazare Trophy with 405 runs in nine matches. His domestic graph continues to show an upward curve during the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy where he creamed back-to-back centuries. The reward was an India-A call-up where Kishan’s pyrotechnics fetched the team wins against South Africa A and New Zealand A.

“From my childhood, I just loved to play shots. Never really liked to leave the ball or defend it. Always loved to attack and liked the sound the ball made off the bat. I never got ruffled by the bowler’s height or pace. For me, it was always about where the bowler was going to land it, and how I would tackle that,” he added.