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Indian wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan, who was named in the 15-men Indian squad for the World Test Championship Final 2023, failed to make a cut in Team India's playing XI against Australia as KS Bharat was handed the responsibility to keep the wickets. Recently, Kishan has pulled out of the Duleep Trophy citing unavailability ahead of the West Indies tour next month.
Apart from the WTC Final at The Oval, the 24-year-old was also included in the Test squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2023, however, the youngster couldn't get a chance to make his red-ball debut for Team India. In his 48 first-class matches, Kishan has scored 2985 runs at an average of 38.76 with six centuries and 16 half-centuries.
The Jharkhand-based cricketer represents the East Zone team in the Duleep Trophy and a report by PTI suggested that Ishan Kishan has opted out of the selection with just a month's time remaining in the Test series against West Indies. An East Zone selection committee member told PTI, "Since he was in India squad for WTC Final and KS Bharat, the man who kept wicket, is playing for South Zone we asked Zonal selection committee convenor Debasish Chakraborty to tell us if we could select Kishan."
The East Zone was looking to hand the captaincy to Ishan Kishan, however, his withdrawal from the selection led India A skipper Abhimanyu Easwaran to lead the team while spinner Shahbaz Nadeem to be his deputy. With this decision, Kishan has put his red-ball career in jeopardy as the two-match Test series against West Indies will begin on July 12.
"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," the report added.
After Kishan conveyed his decision, Tripura selector Jayanta Dey approached Wriddhiman Saha for the selection. The East Zone selector added, "To be fair to Wriddhiman, he said that Duleep Trophy is for India hopefuls. If I am never going to play for India, then doesn't make sense in preventing a youngster from making a case. Hence we selected Abhishek Porel, who was the third choice."
