Ishan Kishan will sit out East Zone’s first Duleep Trophy match after failing to shake off the small but awkward hand injury he picked up while turning out for Nottinghamshire earlier in the summer. The wicketkeeper-batter needed a few stitches and, according to selectors, that alone was enough to keep him out of the picture when India were hunting a stand-in for the injured Rishabh Pant at The Oval last week. Odisha gloveman Aashirwad Swain takes Kishan’s spot in Abhimanyu Easwaran’s 15.
Those close to the team insist the decision is “purely precautionary”. Kishan is expected to be back in contention for next month’s two unofficial Tests against Australia A, and he will continue his rehab at the BCCI Centre of Excellence on the outskirts of Bengaluru. Should the recovery go to plan, he should get a look-in when the India A squad is finalised.
With Kishan unavailable, Jharkhand teenager Kumar Kushagra is the frontrunner to don the gloves against Shubman Gill’s North Zone, the quarter-final starting 28 August at the same CoE ground.
Akash Deep, meanwhile, has been advised a short spell of rest. The East Zone camp have kept details deliberately vague, although the 27-year-old quick did suffer a twinge in his lower back during the recent Test series in England. He skipped the Manchester match, returned for the decider at The Oval, and even squeezed out a maiden fifty as nightwatchman, but the body is clearly asking for a breather. Assam seamer Mukhtar Hussain steps in.
Akash finished that England series with 13 wickets in three Tests, highlighted by a ten-for at Edgbaston that kept India alive. “He’s had a heavy workload and the medical staff felt a week or two off red-ball cricket would do no harm,” an East Zone support-staff member told local media on Monday.
Riyan Parag, fresh from another busy IPL season, has been named Easwaran’s deputy. The enlarged squad also contains Mohammed Shami, whose red-ball appearances have been scarce of late, and Bengal seamer Mukesh Kumar.
East Zone squad: Abhimanyu Easwaran (capt), Aashirwad Swain (wk), Sandeep Patnaik, Virat Singh, Denish Das, Sridam Paul, Sharandeep Singh, Kumar Kushagra (wk), Riyan Parag (vice-capt), Utkarsh Singh, Manishi, Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal, Mukesh Kumar, Mukhtar Hussain, Mohammed Shami.
A quiet start, then, for East Zone, who are looking to break a decade-long title drought. In the short term they would simply settle for a clean bill of health.
