In what is a massive blow for the East Zone, keeper-batter & skipper Ishan Kishan has been ruled out of the upcoming Duleep Trophy 2025 tournament. The southpaw, who was named as the skipper in the 15-man squad for the East Zone, will watch from the sidelines, as Abhimanyu Easwaran will lead the side for the zonal tournament, starting from August 28 in Bengaluru. Besides this setback, the East Zone had earlier suffered another injury blow as pacer Akash Deep was ruled out of the tournament. Ishan's latest setback will also probably impact his selection for the Asia Cup.
The 27-year-old was one of the keeper-batters set to be named in the Continental Cup, but now the second keeper slot will probably go to Jitesh Sharma. Kishan, who last featured for Nottinghamshire in the County Championship in June, was eyeing to make a comeback in the Indian Team with the upcoming Duleep Trophy 2025 event. The southpaw also checked in at the BCCI COE. However, for now, Kishan's grand comeback into the team has hit a roadblock.
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The keeper-batter is now replaced by 20-year-old Aashirwad Swain. The youngster, who showed a rich vein of form in age-group cricket, will join fellow Odia teammate Sandeep Pattnaik in the squad. Meanwhile, Swastik Samal has been named as a standby.
Abhimanyu Easwaran set to resume captaincy duties
Notably, eyebrows were raised when Kishan was named as the skipper of the East Zone side ahead of the more experienced Easwaran. The Bengal skipper, who is also leading the India A sides for the last two years, has a solid experience of playing over 100 matches in First-class games, having amassed 7,800 runs. However, despite showing good form, the elusive India debut has eluded the veteran. Since receiving his maiden Indian call-up, 15 players have gone on to edge him and made their debuts in the Test team for India.
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Easwaran's latest snub was the five-match Test series against England, where, despite being a solid candidate for the number three slot, he was not picked. With a strong showing in the upcoming Duleep Trophy & Ranji Trophy season, the veteran would be hoping to make his India debut against the team's next Test series assignment against the West Indies.
East Zone squad for Duleep Trophy
Abhimanyu Easwaran, Aasirwad Swain (WK), Sandeep Patnaik, Virat Singh, Denish Das, Sridam Paul, Sharandeep Singh, Kumar Kushagra, Riyan Parag, Utkarsh Singh, Manishi, Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal, Mukesh Kumar, Mukhtar Hussain and Mohammed Shami
Standbys: Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Swastik Samal, Sudip Kumar Gharami and Rahul Singh
