Ishan Kishan has featured in every series India has played in 2023 so far. From the ODIs against Sri Lanka in January to the recent World Test Championship final against England last week, the aggressive batter has been part of India’s Test, ODI and T20I squads. In between, the wicketkeeper-batter also played the entire season of the Indian Premier League for Mumbai Indians.
The packed international calendar and the IPL allowed no break for the 24-year-old who has been continuously on the road. Even the ongoing break – between the WTC final and the start of West Indies tour – is not going to be a long one as the southpaw will head to National Cricket Academy (NCA) next week to train ahead of the long tour of the West Indies. The tour features two Tests, three ODIs and five T20Is and gets underway with the first Test from July 12.
India’s Test squad is likely to leave for the West Indies between July 1-3 and it would have been impossible for Ishan, who is likely to retain his spot in the Test squad, to feature in East Zone’s Duleep Trophy fixture vs Central Zone starting from June 28 in Bengaluru.
“Ishan has had a long international calendar and absolutely no breaks in between. Even the ongoing little time away from cricket is short lived as he will be heading to NCA next week to train. He was picked in the WTC final squad as a reserve wicketkeeper and going by that, he is likely to retain his spot in the Test squad for West Indies series. There was no window for him to participate in the Duleep Trophy fixture and the question of ignoring or having no interest in the tournament doesn’t arise because there is no window,” says a source close to the youngster.
The source further added that there was no truth in the recent reports doing rounds on Ishan’s lack of interest or desire to play the longest format.
“Like every youngster, he too wants to play all three formats for India and has been training non-stop for that. There is no question of him not being interested or serious about red ball competitions,” adds the source.
Since January 2023, Ishan has featured in 6 T20Is, 4 ODIs for India and played 16 T20s for Mumbai Indians in the IPL. He was part of the ODI and T20I squads for the home series against Sri Lanka (January), New Zealand (January-February) and also the ODIs against Australia (March) right after the Border Gavaskar Trophy (February-March). The IPL (March-May) was next and It was followed by the World Test Championship final (June) in England.
How will KS Bharat play?
KS Bharat, India’s first choice wicketkeeper in the recent BGT and WTC final, has been picked in South Zone squad for the Duleep Trophy but the Hanuma Vihari-led unit are scheduled to play their first match on July 5. With Bharat likely to make the Test squad for West Indies series, for which the team will depart in the first week of July, it will be impossible for him to feature in the Duleep Trophy fixture.
Duleep Trophy Fixtures
• QF 1: Central Zone vs East Zone, June 28 – July 1, Alur
• QF 2: North Zone vs North East Zone, June 28 – July 1, M. Chinnaswamy Stadium
• SF 1: West Zone vs Winner of QF 1, July 5-8, Alur
• SF 2: South Zone vs Winner of QF 2, July 5-8, M. Chinnaswamy Stadium
• Final: Winner of SF1 vs Winner of SF2, July 12-16, M. Chinnaswamy Stadium
Duleep Trophy Squads
East Zone: Abhimanyu Easwaran (captain), Santanu Mishra, Sudip Gharami, Riyan Parag, A. Majumdar, Bipin Saurabh, A Porel (wk), K Kushagra (wk), Shahbaz Nadeem (vc), Shahbaz Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Anukul Roy, M Mura Singh, Ishan Porel
West Zone: Priyank Panchal (captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Harvik Desai (wicketkeeper), Prithvi Shaw, Het Patel (wicketkeeper), Sarfaraz Khan, Arpit Vasavada, Atit Seth, Shams Mulani, Yuvraj Dodiya, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, Chetan Sakariya, Chintan Gaja, Arzan Nagwaswalla
North Zone: Mandeep Singh (C), Prashant Chopra, Dhruv Shorey, Manan Vohra, Prabhsimran Singh, Ankit Kumar, AS Kalsi, Harshit Rana, Abid Mushtaq, Jayant Yadav, Pulkit Narang, Nishant Sandhu, Sidharth Kaul, Vaibhav Arora, Baltej Singh. North Zone Standby players: Mayank Dagar, Mayank Markande, Ravi Chauhan, Anmol Mahotra, Nehal Wadhera, Diwesh Pathania, Divij Mehra, Kunal Mahajan
Central Zone: Shivam Mavi (c), Vivek Singh, Himanshu Mantri, Kunal Chandela, Shubham Sharma, Amandeep Khare, Rinku Singh, Akshay Wadkar, Upendra Yadav (vc), Dhruv Jurel, Saurabh Kumar, Manav Sathar, Saransh Jain, Avesh Khan, Yash Thakur
Northeast Zone: Rongsen Jonathan(captain), Nilesh Lamichaney (vice-captain), Kishan Lyngdoh, Langlonyamba, A.R. Ahlawat, Joseph Lalthankhuma, Prafullamani (wicketkeeper), Dippu Sangma, Jotin Pheiroijam, Imliwati Lemtur, Palzor Tamang, Kishan Sinha, Akash Kumar Choudhary, Rajkumar Rex Singh, Nagaho Chishi. Reserves: Lee Yong Lepcha, Nabam Abo, Dika Ralte
South Zone: Hanuma Vihari (c), Mayank Agarwal (vc), Sai Sudharsan, Ricky Bhui (wk), KS Bharat (wk), R Samarth, Washington Sundar, Sachin Baby, Pradosh Ranjan Paul, Sai Kishore, V Kaverappa, V Vyshak, KV Sasikanth, Darshan Misal, and Tilak Varma
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