Former England captain Michael Vaughan lauded Ishan Kishan after the left-hander scored a blistering century for his new franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad. The southpaw scored a whirlwind knock of 106 runs off just 47 balls against Rajasthan Royals at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium, Hyderabad on Sunday.

Kishan, who was bagged for INR 11.25 crore by the Orange Army in the IPL 2025 mega auction, completed his century off just 45 balls. After reaching the personal milestone, Kishan celebrated his hundred in style and Vaughan feels the celebration meant more for the batter. Kishan had not received a central BCCI contract in 2024 and he was under the pump.

Vaughan said the celebration was a statement to former franchise Mumbai Indians, who didn’t retain Kishan after he had a mundane run in IPL 2024.

“That celebration wasn’t just a celebration for three figures today. That was a celebration maybe to Mumbai, maybe to the chairman of selectors, maybe to Rohit Sharma, maybe to the whole of India, maybe to the whole of the world. He’s a wonderfully balanced player,” Vaughan said on Cricbuzz.

The former English skipper said India has a lot of batting depth and the selection for the national team is a headache for the selectors.

“I’d love to be the chairman of selectors. The meetings would be long because you have so many players to talk about, and you’d be saying, sorry, Ishan, you’re not even in the top five at the moment. The talent pool in Indian cricket is monstrous. And the only way you can push yourselves into that setup is by doing remarkable things. And in T20 cricket, I think of all the formats to get a century at T20 cricket is the hardest format to get it,” Vaughan said.

Kishan was awarded Player of the Match after SRH registered a 44-run win. After being asked to bat first, the home team posted 286 runs on the board, the second-highest total in the IPL.

Sunrisers Hyderabad will next take on Lucknow Super Giants at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad on Thursday.