'Ishan will bat at...' - India skipper Suryakumar Yadav confirms Ishan Kishan's batting position ahead of T20 World Cup 2026

It is time for the final preparation for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026. While Ishan Kishan has returned to the Indian team suddenly, the Indian T20I skipper Suryakumar Yadav revealed the wicketkeeper-batter’s batting position ahead of the forthcoming T20 World Cup. 

While the five-match home T20I series against New Zealand is set to start on Wednesday (January 21), Indian T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav has confirmed that Ishan Kishan will take the no.3 batting position, which Tilak Varma now holds confidently. While Tilak is absent for at least the first three T20Is, the Indian T20I skipper has confirmed that Ishan will take Tilak’s place instead of Shreyas Iyer, as the wicketkeeper-batter is in the World Cup squad. 

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Ishan will bat at No. 3: Suryakumar Yadav

Suryakumar Yadav revealed on the eve of the T20I series opener, "Ishan will bat at No. 3, since he is in our World Cup team, and we picked him first, so it's his responsibility and his turn to play, and he's not played for India for a long time. He's been doing well in domestic cricket, and he's not played for the Indian team for a year or year-and-a-half, and since we've picked him in the World Cup squad, I feel he deserves to play. If it was a question of No. 4 or 5, we may have thought differently, but unfortunately Tilak isn't there, and I think Ishan is the best bet at No. 3."

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Ishan Kishan was in great batting form in recent domestic T20 cricket

Ishan last served for the Indian cricket team in November 2023. So, he is returning to the national team after more than two years. The left-handed batter finished as the leading run-scorer in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2025-26 with 517 runs in 10 innings with an average of 57.44 and a strike rate of 197.32, including two centuries and two half-centuries. As a skipper of Jharkhand, he smashed a century in the tournament Final to lift the trophy.