Kishan’s talent has been known forever, with his spectacular double-century against Bangladesh one of the great ODI innings and confirmation of the player that Kishan is on his best day. What Kishan hadn’t added at the top level, however, was consistency. Now that’s changed.

Against the West Indies, his three consecutive fifties saw him finish the series as comfortably the top run scorer with 184 runs, a full 58 clear of Shubman Gill in second place. And it wasn’t just the quantity of runs from Kishan that impressed, but also the quality. In all three innings he scored above the run-rate of the innings, as he put to bed a small run chase in the first ODI, played India’s lone-hand during their defeat in the second, and flew along to set the tone in their mammoth total of 351 in the third. Three innings of similar quantitative value, displaying three different skill sets.

After the second ODI, coach Rahul Dravid expressed his pleasure at the performances of Kishan, who including his final innings in the Tests against the West Indies, now has four fifties in a row wearing an India shirt.

"Ishan has done really well,” said Dravid. “Again, he's taking opportunities when given the chance. That's all we ask from young players, we want to give them as many chances as we possibly can. We can't give everyone a chance all the time, there are other talented guys as well.”

Of players to have faced more than 50 deliveries, Kishan made “good” contact with a higher percentage of deliveries (54.1%) than any of his teammates, and behind only Shai Hope and Keacy Carty from the West Indies.

Similarly, his false shot percentage was the third lowest (12.5%) of either team, with only Sanju Samson and Shubman Gill playing a false shot less regularly.

He combined this fluidity with rapidity, boasting the joint highest strike-rate of the series, scoring his runs at 6.73 runs-per-over, a record he shared with Hardik Pandya who struck at the exact same rate.

Kishan’s statistic of making “good” contact is all the more impressive when taking into account his position as opener, where bowlers are at their most likely to draw false shots. Gill’s figure stood at 38.6%, and Kishan maintained this whilst attacking more than any of them and rotating the least, a surprising figure given he was the only opener to make it out of the powerplay in all three fixtures. A high-dot, high-boundary percentage is expected from openers, with that figure expected to flatten out as players rotate with the field out. Instead, Kishan kept his foot down throughout.

"We try our best and give as many chances as we can,” said Dravid. “Sometimes we might have to take those risks, take those chances in situations like that because looking at big tournaments, we need to build some of the players, get answers for specific positions considering the situation we are in."

With the fitness of KL Rahul pending and the chances of injury during a World Cup heightened with increased physical and mental strain in place during a lengthy competition, Kishan has done the best he can to put himself in pole position to edge out Sanju Samson as India’s reserve wicket-keeper and cemented his position as back-up opener.

Of even more promise for India, is that Kishan scored at a greater rate against spin (7.04 rpo) than he did against pace (6.61 rpo). The benefits of that are such that openers, generally, strike better against pace and then struggle against spin having developed on a diet of new-ball bowling, but Kishan is oven-ready for any and all conditions, especially with spin expected to play a greater role in this World Cup given its location.

Ishan Kishan hasn’t forced his way into the XI, that was never the opportunity he was proving himself for, but he’s done everything he can to give India one of the best Plan B’s in the world game.

- CricViz