Ishan Kishan led East Zone to a massive win - by an innings and 210 runs - against North East Zone in his 65th first-class match. His 64th came in November 2025, against Baroda in the Ranji Trophy. He has played 59 games across international and domestic cricket - IPL included - in the nine months between.

As a white-ball specialist, Kishan found the switch difficult. "Situations will get tricky," he said in Bengaluru, where the Duleep Trophy is being held. "It will not be easy for us as players to just move around from white ball to red ball, red ball to white ball; change of format, change of gameplay, but that is the fun part about this game.

"You need to understand, as a sportsman, life can be harsh on us. It just looks very simple, like [a] player just comes here, plays their matches, and they leave. It's not like that. They go around, they keep on thinking, there's so much going on in their head every time."

But the 28-year-old wicketkeeper batter is happy to go through the grind. "If you want to make it big," Kishan said, "you want to make it count, you can't have many excuses. But at the same time, I feel you should just think about getting better and not cry about things which you cannot control."

I enjoy red-ball [cricket] very much. I think people don't believe me when I say that

Ishan Kishan

Some of this steel made way for candour and vulnerability when Kishan spoke about his dismissal in the only innings East Zone batted. He reached out and tried to guide a wide ball behind point and was caught behind for 4. The shot, he conceded, was involuntary.

"I was in the middle of the shot, and I was like 'what the heck I was trying to do!' I should know this is [a] Test [first-class] match and I need to leave a few balls. So I was thinking like that, but when you don't practice so much, especially when the red ball is there [things can happen].

"Sometimes when you think about something that you don't want to do, you end up doing it. I did not want to go to the ball and just play. So I ended up doing the same thing because I was thinking like I don't want to do it. I was just attracting those thoughts, which was not meant to happen, but yeah [it happened anyway].

Kishan has played 32 ODIs and 55 T20Is for India, and 134 matches in the IPL. The last of his two Test appearances came in July 2023. The appeal of red-ball cricket hasn't left him.

"It's always fun to be part of it," Kishan said "because I love that challenge when, you know, yes, it's easier to bat on flat tracks and it's fun as well, but the competition which goes around in Test match[es] is some different-level thing. So, I enjoy red-ball [cricket] very much. I think people don't believe me when I say that smiles, but it's, I'm being very honest, I really do enjoy red-ball cricket."

Coming back to the game, East Zone put on 467 and enforced the follow-on after skittling North East Zone for 111. Tuesday began with North East Zone on 7 for 0 and East Zone's spinners, as per Kishan, getting turn but no bounce. Nonetheless, Anukul Roy took a five-for and they went on to topple North East Zone for 146 in 50 overs.

"I'm happy we got those wickets," Kishan said, "because if some of the [opposition] batters, if they were batting, it would have been easy for them to just control the game and keep on batting for the next one-and-a-half days.

"But we knew our bowlers need to have that belief. If you bowl in the right areas, you will have your plans clear, you will keep it simple, you will get your reward."

The answer seemed to end there but the word 'so' poured slowly out of Kishan's mouth, followed by a pause and the word 'yeah', and then he riffed on a cliche to somehow end on a relatable note.

"So, yeah," Kishan said, "but at the same time, I feel it's complicated as well. Cricket is always complicated, though it's simple; like we know everything, I think all of us know how we need to keep the sport simple, but it's very hard to maintain that."

The start of the 2026-27 domestic red-ball season has brought fresh perspective but there was no hiding the rust that had accumulated. Kishan was not content with the energy levels of his team and hopes to pick things up in their semi-final game against Central Zone, starting on August 30.

"We played after a very long time, this match, but I feel the energy was not up to the mark," Kishan said, "but it can happen in these matches.

"When we are going to play the next match, we'll have to be on our toes. We'll have to put effort, we [will] have to fight for each and every wicket. So, we'll look into it. We'll talk, we'll have a meeting, and we'll try and put up a good show in the next game."