In a major blow to the East Zone squad, Ishan Kishan has been ruled out of this year’s Duleep Trophy. Aashirwad Swain has been called up to the squad as his replacement.
There is no clarity on why Kishan will miss the prestigious red-ball tournament, which marks the start of the domestic season. The Odisha Cricket Association took to X to confirm the news.
“Odisha’s wicketkeeper-batter Aashirwad Swain has been selected for the East Zone squad in the Duleep Trophy, replacing Ishan Kishan! He joins Sandeep Pattnaik in the squad, while Swastik Samal has been named as a standby.”
A couple of weeks ago, Ishan was appointed captain of the East Zone team. The wicketkeeper-batter, whose last appearance came in the County Championship for Nottinghamshire against Somerset in Taunton, has been on the sidelines. When Rishabh Pant got injured, Ishan was set to replace him, but eventually Tamil Nadu wicketkeeper-batter Narayan Jagadeesan joined the squad. According to reports, an injury prevented him from travelling to England.
The same injury concern could be the reason why Ishan has been ruled out of the upcoming six-team tournament.
Double Blow For East Zone
Aashirwad, the Odisha wicketkeeper-batter, has experience in 11 first-class matches, in which he has scored 615 runs at an average of 30.75. With the gloves, he has taken 32 catches and effected 3 stumpings. Kumar Kushagra is likely to don the gloves in Ishan’s absence.
Abhimanyu Easwaran, who was named Ishan’s deputy, will now lead the team.
This is the second setback for the East Zone. Earlier, Akash Deep pulled out of the tournament, with Mukhtar Hussain being drafted into the squad as his replacement.
Two-time Duleep Trophy winners, East Zone will begin their campaign against North Zone from 28 August in Bengaluru.
East Zone Squad (Updated): Abhimanyu Easwaran (C), Aashirwad Swain (WK), Sandeep Pattnaik, Virat Singh, Denish Das, Sridam Paul, Sharandeep Singh, Kumar Kushagra, Riyan Parag, Utkarsh Singh, Manishi, Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal, Mukesh Kumar, Mukhtar Hussain, Mohammed Shami.
Standby Players: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Swastik Samal, Sudip Kumar Gharami, Rahul Singh.
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