Ishan Kishan, who had travelled with the Indian team for the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia in England, does not seem confident about his future in the Indian test setup or so it seems from his decision to pull out of the Duleep Trophy tournament where he was selected from East Zone. His decision comes with him likely to be included in the India tour of West Indies within a month's time. India A captain Abhimanyu Easwaran will be leading the side while spinner Shahbaz Nadeem, who has donned Indian colours in the past, will be his deputy.
With Kishan's decision to withdraw from the first-class competition right before the two-match Test series in which India will take on West Indies, the East Zone selectors were caught in a fix. An east zone selection committee member has told news agency PTI that Kishan was selected after asking Zonal selection committee convenor Debasish Chakraborty since he was the India squad and KS Bharat was playing for South Zone.
Later, the selectors even approached Wriddhiman Saha. However, the stumper, who was not considered even for a one-off game like the WTC final, said that since he has clearly been told that he won't be considered for a place in the national team, he shouldn't occupy a place which a youngster might benefit more from.
"Since he (Kishan) 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," an East Zone selection committee member told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
"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 selector said.
It was Tripura selector Jayanta Dey who wanted Saha in the Saha after the aforementioned developments.
"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," he added.
Ultimately, it was youngster Abhishek Porel, the 20-year-old who played for the Delhi Capitals (DC) in IPL 2023 in absence of Rishabh Pant, who was selected in the squad. Kumar Kushagra, an 18-year-old from Jharkand, was also named in the side as a keeper.
East Zone Squad For Duleep Trophy: A Easwaran (captain), Santanu Mishra, Sudip Gharami, Riyan Parag, A. Majumdar, Bipin Saurabh, Abhishek Porel (wicketkeeper), Kumar Kushagra (wicketkeeper), S Nadeem (vc), Shahbaz Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Anukul Roy, M Mura Singh, Ishan Porel.
(With Inputs From PTI)