Ishan Kishan withdraws from Duleep Trophy ahead of WI Tests: Reports

Reportedly, Ishan Kishan has opted out of the Duleep Trophy ahead of the Windies test tour.

India's star wicket-keeper Ishan Kishan was part of the Indian test squad in the recently concluded World Test Championship 2023 final against Australia at the Oval. Team India lost the game by a massive margin of 209 runs and lost the chance to end their ICC trophy drought. Notably, this is India's second consecutive WTC final loss. Ishan Kishan made to the squad after KL Rahul was ruled out due to injury.

Ishan Kishan joined the team as a replacement and there was a big uproar that he might make his test debut after a decent season of the Indian Premier League in 2023. But India went with KS Bharat in the squad. But Bharat failed with the bat. Hence, there were rumours that Ishan Kishan is expected to make his test debut in the upcoming two-test match series against West Indies starting on July 12.

Ishan Kishan withdraws from upcoming Duleep Trophy: Reports

Ahead of the WI Tests, the southpaw has decided to withdraw from Duleep Trophy citing unavailability. Ishan has played 48 red-ball games in the domestic circuit and scored 2985 runs at an average of 38.76, including six centuries and 16 half-centuries. He plays for East Zone in the Duleep Trophy but as reported by PTI, the 24-year-old has decided to opt out of the tournament, that too just one month prior to upcoming test series in West Indies.

An East Zone selection committee member confirmed PTI, "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 selection committee was expecting to handover the captaincy to Ishan but as he will not be part of the tournament, the India "A" captain Abhimanyu Easwaran was handed over the captaincy.

Shahbaz Nadeem will be the vice-captain. However, with not much time left in team's selection for WI tests, this decision from Ishan might have put his test debut in a big question. Furthermore, Tripura selector Jayanto Dev also approached veteran wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha for the team after Ishan denied. Though Saha confirmed that Duleep Trophy is for platform for a place in Indian team and he is not expected to make it thus, he will not take part in it. Then, the selection committee picked Abhishek Porel, who was the third choice.