'Was thinking how I can be Ishan Kishan. But I nicked the first ball and started crying': Australia legend's stunner

Ishan Kishan's knock of 210 against Bangladesh in the third ODI in Chattogram earlier this month was the most entertaining inning by an Indian batter this year. Ishan belted his maiden century for India and made it even more historic by converting into a double off just 126 balls, making it the fastest 200 in the history of ODI cricket. During his marathon knock, Ishan shattered quite a few records and joined an illustrious list of Indian cricketers which features only Sachin Tendulkar, Virender and Rohit Sharma. The impact of Ishan's innings was such that it not only earned him a place in India's squad for the Sri Lanka ODIs too, but also shoved Shikhar Dhawan out of contention.

Ishan's carnage on Bangladesh allowed him to make fans worldwide, including certain legends of the game. Sunil Gavaskar feels the way Ishan is batting, the India youngster can slam the first-ever ODI triple century in due time. Former Australia pacer Brett Lee was impressed by Ishan's thunderous knock and backed him to be India's 'sure-shot' opener for the 50-over World Cup next year in India. Ishan's moment of glory was a culmination of years of hard work which the 23-year-old has put in during his formative years in the domestic circuit, which probably would have begun with Gully cricket. Every Indian cricketer had gone through the drills of gully cricket – some even do it now – as a youngster before venturing into domestic cricket.

Similar to Gully cricket in India which is played on the streets, cricketers in Australia are first subjected to playing backyard cricket, and Lee is no exception. The former Australia pacer revealed how he picked up his basics while playing at home while growing up as he rekindles some of his old memories of backyard cricket.

"For me personally, backyard cricket was almost like university or school... of thought to train my brain to one day become a Test cricketer. The aggression, the frustration, the fights, the anger, the passion that you show in backyard cricket. Now we are very lucky here in Australia, I am based on the south coast of Sydney where I grew up and I know that so many other kids around the world haven't got that luxury of playing on beautiful grass fields or backyards or big spaces," Lee said on his official YouTube channel.

"It can be Gully cricket over in India or street cricket around the world. But right here in Australia, we generally have a decent sized backyard and we had a nice little backyard and even a driveway, we'd run up across the road and bowl. So picture this backyard cricket at the Lee's house normally around a Christmas morning or a Christmas afternoon or Boxing day morning, We'd have the whole pitch set out. So backyard cricket consisted of my older brother Shane and my younger brother Grant and yours truly."

However, reminiscing one of the not-so-fond memories of playing in the backyard, Lee recalled how he was once made to bowl endlessly by elder brother Shane, and when it was his turn to bat, Brett was dismissed first ball and ended up crying. Lee recalled that in reply to Shane's triple-century, he was expecting to score at least a double, but his hopes shattered when he was dismissal first ball and it was only after their mother intervened that Lee for a second opportunity to bat on.

"We had some ferocious games of backyard cricket I can promise you. One time my older brother Shane, he went out to about a stinking hot day in Australia about 38 degrees, he goes out there and scores a big 200. 200 in the backyard I couldn't get him out, I think a few times, I nicked him off and he got caught in the pot plant. The pot plant in the fall was definitely, that was a short leg. Over the back fence was six and out, we had all these rules. But Shane you know, he wasn't quite the cheat in the backyard but there were couple of occasions where I reckon I got him but he didn't go for it," Lee added.

"He finally gets out 200 runs, might have been 300s... a lot of runs, I was bowling for hours. Then my turn to bat and I'm thinking like how can I consolidate that innings. How can I be Ishan Kishan of the world and go on and get a big double hundred and try to win the game. I went out there, nicked first ball and Shane ran inside and I started crying. Mum came out and had a go on my brother and I got another bat. But that was our story of backyard cricket, ferocious games of cricket and the other thing too, my older brother Shane would always make me get a brand-new tennis ball. So he'd say, go down the shops, buy a brand new tennis ball and bring it back. And I'd say why can't you guys go, i don't want to play then so he knew that I was so keen to play and I'd ride down every second day to the shops and buy a brand-new tennis ball."