Ishan Kishan has always said how MS Dhoni impacted his career. Both are wicketkeeper batters and have played domestic cricket from the same team. Kishan had a successful West Indies tour. He scored half-centuries in all the ODI matches. The half-century in the third ODI also saw the wicketkeeper-batter enter an elite club which has the likes of MS Dhoni, Dilip Vengsarkar, Mohammed Azharuddin among other. He is the latest Indian batter to score fifties in all three matches of the bilateral ODI series. However, he also emulated Dhoni, the wicketkeeper, too as he bagged the 'Player of the series' award.
Kishan is the first wicketkeeper-batter since Dhoni to win a Player of the Series Award.
After receiving the 'Player of the Series' award, Ishan said that he wanted to score big after being set.
"Not so happy with the finishing that I gave. I was supposed to score big after being set. That's what my seniors told me, I should've stayed in and scored big. That's what I'll try next time, I'll get set in the middle and score big. It's important at this level to get set. It's important to forget the last game and start from 0. I was thinking of taking it one ball at a time. [On Shubman Gill] He's a tremendous player, I've seen how he middles the ball. Seeing him hitting it out of the middle gives me a lot of confidence as well," Ishan said
"Always important to win at this level, the learnings from these games are important. We were looking to get early wickets, and didn't let any ball go. Everyone is looking very positive. I've played a few tournaments here and I know how the wickets play here, not really thinking about the next T20 world cup. Focussing on the upcoming tournaments, you know how one tournament can change your life. We're just focussing on that now," he further added.
Chasing a huge total of 352, West Indies lose their first wicket early as Mukesh Kumar dismissed Brandon King on a duck in the first over.
Mukesh again struck the wicket, he cleared up WI captain Shai Hope at 5. Shubman Gill took the catch at the slip. Suffering from Mukesh's class swing, West Indies were 17/3 after 7 overs.
West Indies continued to crumble as Shardul Thakur dismissed Romario Shepherd (8) on a bounce in the 14th over. Shepherd tried a pull shot but he found Unadkat in the deep backward square.
Gudakesh Motie and Alzarri Joseph bounced back as they added 50-run partnership in 47 balls for the 9th wicket. However, their partnership came to an end after Thakur dismissed Joseph at 26 with a bouncer. Ishan Kishan caught Joseph in a failed pull shot.
Thakur picked the last wicket by clearing up Jayden Seales with an angled ball hitting the stumps. India won by a massive 200 runs in 35.3 overs.
Earlier, the outstanding opening partnership of 143 runs between Ishan Kishan and Shubman Gill followed by quickfire knocks from Sanju Samson and Hardik Pandya powered India to 351/5.