Ishan Kishan has been spoken of among the contenders to be India’s first-choice wicketkeeper until Rishabh Pant returns to full fitness. However, he has reportedly let go of a chance to prove himself in the longest format ahead of India’s two-Test series in the West Indies by opting out of the Duleep Trophy.
Kishan may have been a contender to lead East Zone in the domestic first class tournament, which is scheduled to take place form June 28 to July 16, but it is now Abhimany Easwaran who will lead the side. According to PTI, an East Zone selection committee member said that they had asked Zonal selection committee convenor Debasish Chakraborty if they could select Kishan.
“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 told PTI.
While he is among the top contenders to open the batting in limited overs cricket, Kishan is yet to make his Test debut. Calls for him to be included in the team in the World Test Championship (WTC) final increased after KS Bharat’s poor display with the bat in India’s home series against Australia earlier this year. However, India went with Bharat as their wicketkeeper with Kishan left on the bench for the final, which they eventually lost by 209 runs.
Kishan has played 48 first class matches, scoring 2985 runs at an average of 38.76 with six centuries and 16 half centuries.
It was further learnt that once Kishan conveyed his decision, Tripura selector Jayanta Dey wanted Wriddhiman Saha and he was also contacted. “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.
