On June 28, 2023, the Duleep Trophy will start. East Zone has chosen Abhimanyu Easwaran, who is 27 years old, as their captain for the first-class tournament.
Shahbaz Nadeem, who plays for Jharkhand in the Ranji Trophy, has been named vice captain of the team. Ishan Kishan, a star wicketkeeper and hitter, is said to have decided not to join the team, which made Abhimanyu Easwaran the captain. It is also said that the East Zone selectors didn’t understand why Kishan didn’t want to play in the event when India was about to play the West Indies in a Test series.
Also, after Kishan decided not to play, the selectors turned their attention to veteran wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha. However, the 38-year-old was said to have said that the Duleep Trophy was for India’s up-and-coming players and that it wouldn’t make sense for him to play instead of a young player.
“Since he was on the India team for the WTC final and the wicketkeeper, KS Bharat, plays for South Zone, we asked Zonal Selection Committee convenor Debasish Chakraborty if we could pick Kishan,” News18 quoted a member of the East Zone selection committee as saying.
“He would have been captain because he has played for India for a long time with the white ball. Chakraborty called Ishan and found out that he didn’t want to play in the Duleep Trophy. He then came back and told us this. We didn’t know if he hurt himself or not. He doesn’t want to play, that’s all,” he said.
Also, Riyan Parag, who is 21 years old, has been put on the East Zone team for the Duleep Trophy. Parag had a disappointing season with the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023, which just ended. Now that he has been chosen, he hopes that he can do better.
Squad: East Zone:
Abhimanyu Easwaran (c), Santanu Mishra, Sudip Gharami, Riyan Parag, A. Majumdar, Bipin Saurabh, Abhishek Porel (wk), K Kushagra (wk), Shahbaz Nadeem (vc), Shahbaz Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Anukul Roy, M Mura Singh, Ishan Porel.