In the middle of 2025, Sai Kishore was on top of the world. His Tamil Nadu and Gujarat Titans teammate Shahrukh Khan hadn't seen him bowl better. There was an evident spring to his step, a little spice to his wicket celebrations, and the ball — with all its many variations — came out beautifully off his hand all season. He finished IPL 2025 with 19 wickets.

Then came 2026. He played just three matches, bowled in only two, and picked a solitary wicket. The IPL offers the big bright lights, but no guarantees — even after career-defining seasons.

The injury that started it all

Sai Kishore's predicament wasn't just down to Gujarat Titans' change in ideas and strategy. The seeds of this trough were sown during a club game in Chennai in August 2025, when a ring finger injury to his bowling hand led to a minor surgery and rehabilitation. On November 1, he was back — playing for Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy game against Vidarbha.

"I think on hindsight when I reflect, more than anything, I should have given myself more time to come back to cricket from my surgery," Sai Kishore told Cricbuzz. "In the domestic season, especially till the end of Vijay Hazare, I was still getting to my full fitness. I think I shouldn't have done it at that time."

He admits the temptation of selection drove him back too quickly. "When we get injured, we want to play again, prove our form and get selected for everything. This is how our mind works. On hindsight, I should have come back to play only after getting my best rhythm."

That rush showed in both the Vijay Hazare Trophy and the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, where he picked just the one wicket all season. "I didn't have the maturity level then that I have now. By the end of the last phase of Vijay Hazare, I got my rhythm back. When it comes to a finger, which is a crucial part of my game, that has to fully heal."

The Kobe Bryant inspiration

For someone who had already felt the fabric of an Indian team jersey during the Asian Games 2023, it would have been very human to curse his injury luck. He didn't.

"To be fair, any good performance is a lot of things going your way. A little bit here and there, and it will be a six. Last year, I think that happened beautifully for me. So without taking any credit, I think my time was good. The situations were good," he says, almost trivialising his stellar season.

Then he offers a peek into his daily routine — and the origins of his approach to setback. "I am in that phase where I am at the ground at 4 AM all by myself to train, it is dark, only the curator is there, who I've had to wake up. I am in that phase. It's okay. Eventually, sun has to come out."

He draws inspiration from an unlikely source. "I remember one post from Kobe Bryant. I used to follow him blindly. He had to get an Achilles surgery. So, he then wrote on Facebook that I am already 35. How can I come back to the level I was at? I don't know if I can do this. But again, there is no other way. I have to go back to the drawing board. Find the process on how I can get better. Still keep doing it."

Retaining innocence

Sai Kishore is 29. He's been part of the sport long enough to know what a hiatus can do to your prospects at every level. That awareness perhaps explains his urge to preserve a different stage of his journey.

"When you start playing as a kid, you don't know of all these things [mental side of sitting out in a season]. That is a big blessing. When you don't know such things or aren't thinking much, you're like okay let's win this particular game and move on. I want to retain that innocence in my career," he says.

"Even if I have a larger perspective of playing for the country, the feeling of the ball coming off your hand [is the most amazing]. We are playing for the joys that we got out of playing the sport from childhood. So, when you know that you are not playing, you have to again go back to drawing board, keep working, keep improving."

He comes from a non-cricket background. Even now, people in his house don't watch cricket. His dad has watched only one game of his life — the IPL final in 2022. "There's improbable things like picking 10 wickets in a match. I want to do that. It's that belief which made me a cricketer. Even now, people in my house don't watch cricket. So I don't want to lose that blind belief in myself. Even if I get one game, I want to be man of the match."

The work behind the scenes

The 2026 season for Sai Kishore became about the work done on days leading up to a game. The GT management offered him clarity on his reduced role, and he just chose to kick on in ways only he knew. Hours went into making modifications to the carom ball he so effectively used a year before, and time was spent with Rashid Khan trading notes on spin bowling.

Away from the bustle of the nets, he learnt to ask himself some important questions. "When everything outside is changing, the constant has to be within. In terms of cricketers, people keep chasing [success]. But for me success is within. How happy we are, how peaceful we are, how satisfied we are, that for me is success at this point in time. More than thinking of achieving this or that. Because that will keep piling on. Then the question comes how then do I be happy eventually? Finding an answer to that is the biggest success."

"When you look at the highs, you know it isn't enough. When you look at the lows, you know this isn't the last of it. It's a fluid process. Last year, when I came back after IPL, I felt great. What's going to change in the next 12 months? Nothing. Only the perception is going to change. We can never catch up to perception. You can be honest and keep working and you'll get what you want at the right time."

The butterfly effect

The Indian cricket landscape is almost always changing, and within that, the spin bowling world is a chaotic bubble of its own where younger talents keep arriving with eagerness to impress. The desperation for ascent is not for everyone, though.

"All these are just perspectives [about competition from younger spinners]. If you look at my life perspective, I am not running in a rat race. I am very content and satisfied with what I have," Sai Kishore says.

"There's a Michael Hussey podcast with Ashwin where he talks about the butterfly effect. Whatever has to come to you, will come to you. Butterflies have to come to the garden. Similarly, when you try too hard, you are chasing things away. So, without that, I want to work on what is necessary. Whatever comes, will come. Whatever the time is right for, let that happen. I don't want to clutch onto this too much. I want to work honestly, and hard. That's enough."

These aren't sudden epiphanies stumbled upon after a twist of fate in the IPL. They go back a long way. "When I joined the Tamil Nadu team also, this is how I made my mark. Whether I get to play for TN or not now, let me be honest and work hard, whatever has to happen, will happen. That was my mindset. So, nothing changes."

"I definitely got that [peace of mind] through the struggles. When you think about it, the question that comes to mind is what is constant? What is happiness? What is peace of mind? Say you play a match and pick five wickets, there's feeling of happiness. Then in another game, you put in the same effort, but you don't get the result. Then you start thinking who are you playing for? These kind of questions take me to the field. These thoughts have been there for 3-4 years and I keep getting clarity."

Sai Kishore gets back to competitive cricket on August 4, with the Tamil Nadu Premier League serving as his first stop. And the reflections of the last few months have travelled with him into his return. For the next 12 months, he wants nothing more than to: "Be skillfully more developed, mentally more matured, spiritually more evolved."