Kishan walks the talk to make a compelling case for the T20 World Cup

Ishan Kishan didn't answer what he was asked, but what he said revealed a lot about his mindset.

Before the fifth T20I against New Zealand in Thiruvananthapuram, Murali Kartik asked him who his sounding board was. Kishan might have misunderstood the question, and said, "When it comes to batting, I actually like Nicky P [Nicholas Pooran]. I love his batting; you want to bat like him. When left-arm spinners are bowling, you know he is going to take them down nine times out of ten. That is the level of consistency he has got. I felt I was lacking that and I am trying to get better at it."

Later in the match, Kishan walked the talk.

Having missed India's previous game with a niggle, Kishan came out in the third over as Sanju Samson endured another failure, a run-a-ball 6. Kishan, after his 76 off 32 balls in the second T20I, had said it didn't feel like he could get out even to a good ball. Saturday night was no different.

There was some early help for fast bowlers but when Lockie Ferguson bowled two slower deliveries back-to-back in the fifth over, Kishan dispatched them for a four and a six. He had moved to 15 off 12 when New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner, a left-arm fingerspinner, the type of bowler Pooran takes down routinely, brought himself on.

Santner, though, is one of the wiliest around. He bowled a flatter trajectory and conceded only three singles off four balls to Kishan. But when he returned for his second over, Kishan knew he had to make amends.

Bowling around the wicket, Santner tossed one up and slanted it across to stay away from the batter's hitting arc. Kishan stepped out, reached for the ball and hit it over extra cover. Santner's next ball was in line with the stumps. Kishan was quick to go down on his knee and slog-sweep it over square leg for a six.

He was looking so dangerous that Ish Sodhi, a legspinner whose stock delivery turns into a left-hand batter's hitting arc, started the 12th over with two offbreaks. The first was a wide, the second was put away for four. Kishan hit four fours and two sixes in that Sodhi over. Before the over began, he was on 47 off 27; by the end of it, he had raced to 75.

He got a life on 84 when Glenn Phillips, arguably the best fielder in the world, put down a regulation chance off Kyle Jamieson at deep midwicket. The ball burst through his hands and went for six.

When Kishan faced Santner again, he was on 91 off 40. Even though he was approaching his maiden T20I hundred, he did not want to slow down, especially against a left-arm spinner. Santner once again angled the ball across him. Kishan moved outside the off stump and pulled it over deep midwicket. The next delivery was again wide but fuller. Kishan slog-swept it for another six to bring up his hundred.

In all, he scored 30 off 12 balls against Santner and 37 off 11 against Sodhi. Never before has a batter scored these many off either of them in a T20I. Not even Pooran.

After the match, Kishan was asked if it was a conscious effort to keep hitting even when the milestone was in sight. "I think that's the plan nowadays for each and every player in our team," he said. "Even if you are close to your milestone, it doesn't matter. If we start taking singles and in the end, we feel we could have gone big in those overs, it makes a huge difference [to the final total]. So the important thing is if the ball is there, you just have to go for it. You don't think about the milestone, but about winning the match."

Kishan eventually fell for 103 off 43 balls, but every run took him closer to India's XI for the T20 World Cup. It even looked like the team management had made the decision in his favour when he walked out wearing the big gloves during the chase, even though Samson was marked as the wicketkeeper in the team sheet. Suryakumar Yadav, however, later clarified that it was always the plan. "We had decided before the series that Sanju Samson would keep in three games and Ishan in two," he said. "Ishan unfortunately missed the last game because of a niggle but he was anyway going to keep today."

Kishan did not have a great day behind the stumps. He was late to react to an Axar Patel delivery that kept coming in with the arm after leaving Finn Allen stranded down the pitch. However, the missed stumping did not cost India much as Allen was dismissed later in the over.

Moreover, Kishan had done enough in front of the stumps to make a compelling case to be the first-choice wicketkeeper at the World Cup.