India wicketkeeper batter Ishan Kishan has opened up on him taking a break from international cricket, which led to his ouster from the team. Kishan last played for India during the third T20I of a five-match series against Australia in November last year. He was then named in the subsequent tour of South Africa, but opted out of the Test series due to personal reasons. After taking a short break, Kishan also decided to skip Ranji Trophy matches, which led to the BCCI removing him from the central contracts list.

Rahul Dravid, who was the head coach of India at that time, has suggested that if Kishan wanted to make a comeback, he must feature and perform in domestic matches.

While his decision to skip domestic matches led to severe criticism, Kishan has now revealed that he was not in the right frame of mind to play Ranji Trophy games.

“I took a break and I think it was normal. There is a rule that if you want to make a comeback you must perform in domestic cricket. It is as simple as that. Now, it was very different for me to play domestic cricket as it was not making any sense. I was not in a frame of mind to play and that is why I took a break from international cricket. It doesn’t make sense that you take a break from international cricket and then you go and play domestic matches. Fir toh aap international hi khelte (Then I could have continued playing for India),” Kishan told the Indian Express.

Kishan also admitted that he was disappointed with him not getting enough playing time for the Indian team, despite performing. 

“It was depressing. Today I don’t want to say that everything was fine. It was not easy for me at all. You go through a lot. Mere dimag mey ye sab chalta raha ki yaar kya hoga gaya, kyu ho gaya, mere saath kyu (Questions like what happened, why me). All these things happened when I was performing,” he added.

After skipping the South Africa tour and Ranji Trophy, Kishan returned to action during the Indian Premier League earlier this year.

However, he scored just 320 runs from 14 innings at an average of 22.85 and a strike rate of 148.83.

As a result, he was not considered for T20 World Cup selection, with the management picking Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson as the two wicketkeepers.