Wanted in England, ignored at home: The strange case of spinner Sai Kishore - The Indian Express
A month ago, in the middle of the English summer, a video posted by Gloucestershire’s social media handles went viral with the caption: “Ball of the year contender?” It was the dismissal of Brett D’Oliveira, the Worcestershire captain, bowled by an R Sai Kishore delivery that landed around the sixth-stump channel outside leg and somehow ended up taking off-stump. A week later came another sight the cricket world has grown used to, Ben Stokes flipping his bat in the air after being outwitted by Sai Kishore on a green top that was hard to distinguish from the outfield.
It didn’t end there. Later that month, in one spell of eight overs against Derbyshire, he took five wickets for six runs.
While all this was happening, India’s domestic season was in full swing, and Sai Kishore wasn’t part of it. He didn’t turn out for South Zone in the Duleep Trophy. The left-arm spinner has taken 126 wickets in 26 Ranji matches since the 2022-23 season at an average of 23.16, and for reasons known only to the South Zone selectors, he was deemed surplus, with Tanay Thyagarajan and T Vijay picked ahead of him. Both were then found wanting in the middle.
What a ball from Sai Kishore to remove Ben Stokes! 😮💨#BecomeGlorious pic.twitter.com/XeAZvaaaem
Fifteen players are in Japan with the T20I squad for the Asian Games. Fifteen others are in Thiruvananthapuram for the ODI series against West Indies. The next fifteen are in Pondicherry with India A for the series against Australia A. A whole different group will head to Srinagar this week to represent Rest of India against Ranji Trophy champions Jammu & Kashmir. Despite consistent domestic performances and a body of IPL work that has, in 2025, outperformed his own teammate Rashid Khan, Sai Kishore is nowhere near any of these squads. He is in England, playing County Division II.
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This wasn’t always the case. Not so long ago, the left-arm spinner was firmly in India’s plans, drafted first into the white-ball setup, then lined up as a Test option too. But missing the Duleep Trophy squad also cost him a shot at India A. When a spot did open up there, with Vipraj Nigam pulled out to replace the injured Varun Chakravarthy for Japan, it was Vijay, who had gone at four and five runs an over in the Duleep final, who got the call instead.
Sai Kishore has 5 wickets… from eight overs… for 6 runs!#BecomeGlorious pic.twitter.com/UYppR0WqG7
The case made for leaving him out of Duleep Trophy was that other spinners had taken more wickets than his 20 in six matches last Ranji season. That may be true on paper, but Thyagarajan and Vijay both struggled once the tournament began. Selectors, in fairness, rarely pick on numbers alone, they weigh potential, team requirements, and the pool they’re trying to build. If wickets were the only criterion, Manav Suthar wouldn’t be in the Test squad either. Sai Kishore has ticked every other box. The call simply hasn’t come.
Since the start of the 2022-23 season, only Shams Mulani, Jalaj Saxena, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, Siddarth Desai, Kumar Kartikeya and Sagar Udeshi have taken more wickets than him in that span. In the IPL, he remains the only one among that group to have made a real mark. Having now missed out on Duleep Trophy, India A and Rest of India in the same season, Sai Kishore returns to lead Tamil Nadu and start over, likely wondering whether his career is beginning to resemble that of Jalaj Saxena, an off-spinner overlooked for years despite piling up wickets for Madhya Pradesh, and then for Kerala, before anyone in Indian cricket thought to notice.
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