Injury Blow: East Zone captain Ishan Kishan ruled out of Duleep Trophy, 27-year-old wicketkeeper-batter announced as replacement

In a big blow to East Zone, their skipper Ishan Kishan has been ruled out of the Duleep Trophy 2025. Ishan Kishan, who was named captain just a couple of weeks ago, will miss the six-team tournament, which is scheduled to begin on August 28 in Bengaluru.

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Ishan Kishan out of Duleep Trophy

Aashirwad Swain, a 20-year-old wicketkeeper from Odisha, has been named as Kishan's replacement. However, so far no reason has been cited for Kishan's absence in the upcoming tournament The Odisha Cricket Association confirmed the news on its official X account.

“Odisha’s wicketkeeper-batter Aashirwad Swain has been selected for the East Zone squad in the Duleep Trophy, replacing Ishan Kishan! He joins Sandeep Pattnaik in the squad, while Swastik Samal has been named as standby," Odisha Cricket Association's post on X read.

Ishan Kishan, who has played two Tests, 27 ODIs, and 32 T20Is for India since his debut on March 14, 2021, last played a competitive match for Nottinghamshire against Somerset from June 29 to July 2. In that game, the wicketkeeper-batter scored 77 runs while batting at number six.

With Kishan ruled out, Bengal batter Abhimanyu Easwaran is set to take over the captaincy for the East Zone team. The 29-year-old right-handed batter was originally named as Kishan's deputy for the Duleep Trophy. Easwaran brings a wealth of experience, having scored 7,841 runs in 103 first-class matches.

East Zone's squad for Duleep Trophy:

Abhimanyu Easwaran, Aasirwad Swain (WK), Sandeep Patnaik, Virat Singh, Denish Das, Sridam Paul, Sharandeep Singh, Kumar Kushagra, Riyan Parag, Utkarsh Singh, Manishi, Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep and Mohammed Shami

Standbys: Mukhtar Hussain, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Swastik Samal, Sudip Kumar Gharami and Rahul Singh

If injury isn't the reason, Kishan could be seen in India A's tour to Australia. The India A cricket team is set to host Australia A for an unofficial Test and ODI series, which will run from September 16 to October 5. The tour will feature two unofficial Tests and three one-day matches. Given the presence of several capped players on both sides, the series is expected to be a star-studded and highly competitive event.

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