East Zone announce squad for Duleep Trophy, Ishan Kishan to lead; Mohammed Shami called up

East Zone have announced a 15-member squad for the upcoming Duleep Trophy. In an interesting development, Ishan Kishan has been announced as the new captain. Abhimanyu Easwaran, who serves as the captain of the India A team and is currently a member of the national squad that is on tour to England for a five-match Test series, is named as the vice-captain. 

Easwaran has been in the India Test scheme of things for several years but is yet to make his debut. He toured to Australia and England and were expected to get some game time under his belt, but wasn’t handed any opportunity. Now, he is expected to be eager to prove his worth in the Duleep Trophy to prove his mettle and secure his spot in the upcoming domestic season. 

On the other hand, Kishan recently featured for Nottinghamshire, where he batted brilliantly. Courtesy of that, the team management reached out to the keeper-batter to replace injured Rishabh Pant in the fifth Test against



England. However, Kishan then informed that he, too, is dealing with an injury. The selectors then called up N Jagadeeshan for the Oval Test. 

Mohammed Shami called up

Mohammed Shami, who wasn’t deemed fit for the five-match tour to England, has been called up to the Duleep Trophy squad. He will partner with Bengal teammate Mukesh Kumar in the pace department.

Meanwhile, Assam captain Riyan Parag has also been called up to the squad. His Rajasthan Royals teammate, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, has been named among one of the reserve players.

East Zone squad - Ishan Kishan (wk/c), Abhimanyu Easwaran, Sandeep Paitnaik, Virat Singh, Denish Das, Sriram Paul, Sharandeep Singh, Kumar Kushagra, Riyan Parag, Utkarsh Singh, Manishi, Suraj Jaiswal, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Mohammed Shami

Standby players - Mukhtar Hussain, Aasirwad Swain, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Swastik Samal, Sudip Kumar Gharami, Rahul Singh