The 2023-24 domestic season is set to commence in India with the Duleep Trophy on June 28. The tournament is an opportunity for some of the Indian team players to stake their claim for the Test side with a good performance in this tournament. However, young Indian cricketer Ishan Kishan has strangely pulled out of Duleep Trophy when he was set to be picked in the East Zone squad and named captain.
This is a hugely surprising decision from the left-hander who was part of India's squad in the World Test Championship (WTC) Final against Australia and is most likely to get picked for the upcoming West Indies tour as well. With KS Bharat struggling to make any kind of impact with the bat in five Tests he has played so far, there is every chance of Kishan making his debut in the Caribbean.
But the East Zone selection committee was baffled to know that the youngster was not interested in playing the red-ball tournament. "Since he was in India squad for WTC final and KS Bharat, the man who kept wickets is playing for South Zone, we asked Zonal selection committee convenor Debasish Chakraborty to tell us if we could select Kishan.
"As he is a senior India regular in white ball, he would have got the captaincy. Chakraborty got in touch with Ishan over phone and came back and told us that he is not interested in playing Duleep Trophy. We were not told if he has an injury or not. Just that he doesn't want to play," a East Zone selection committee member told PTI.
With Kishan denying to play in the Duleep Trophy, Abhimanyu Easwaran has been named the captain of East Zone squad that also includes players like Riyan Parag, Mukesh Kumar, Shahbaz Ahmed and Abhisek Porel who recently played in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
East Zone squad: A Easwaran (capt), Santanu Mishra, Sudip Gharami, Riyan Parag, A. Majumdar, Bipin Saurabh, A Porel (wk), K Kushagra (wk), S Nadeem (vc), Shahbaz Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Anukul Roy, M Mura Singh, Ishan Porel.
