Ishan Kishan

Prodigies aren't uncommon in Indian cricket. What's unusual in Ishan Kishan's journey is the fact that its roots originate in Jharkhand. With MS Dhoni - the biggest and perhaps only noteworthy name to have come out of the newly carved out state, it's no surprise that the young kid took to become a wicket-keeping batsman. A left-handed opener, Kishan's first claim to fame came in 2016 when he was picked to lead the India Under-19s for the U-19 World Cup held in Dhaka.

Despite a lean run with the bat (73 runs in six innings), in a tournament where Rishabh Pant lit up the scoring charts, he led India to the finals. He was, however, quick to turn his fortunes around in the domestic Ranji season that was to follow - ending up as Jharkhand's leading run-scorer with 799 runs. That included a career best 273 against Delhi, the highest till date by a Jharkhand batsman.

While his batting was prospering at both the domestic and the franchise level, any further aspirations at the highest level remained a pipe-dream. India's white-ball opening pair was solid and in MS Dhoni, they had a long serving keeper as well a captain. Ishan Kishan also had competition and plenty of them, notably his U-19 opening partner Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, India's number 2 keeper-batter and a host of upcoming talents in the form of Sanju Samson and Dhruv Jurel.