after an absence of more than two years, cheryshev appeared for the national team again on 27 march 2018 in a friendly with france. on 11 may, he was included in an extended squad for that year's world cup, also being named as one of the final 23 players. he made his debut in the competition on 14 june, replacing the injured alan dzagoev midway through the first half of the group stage opener against saudi arabia in moscow and scoring twice in a 5–0 win. he scored his third goal in the tournament against egypt in a 3–1 victory, adding another in the quarter-finals when he curled a strike past croatia's danijel subašić from just outside the 18-yard area to open the scoring, but in an eventual 3–4 penalty shoot-out loss.