Duleep Trophy: Shami, Akash, Easwaran included, Kishan appointed East Zone captain

Ranchi, Aug 1 (IANS) Mohammed Shami, Akash Deep, and Abhimanyu Easwaran have been included in the East Zone squad for the Duleep Trophy, starting on August 28 in Bengaluru. The East Zone zonal selectors, who convened in a meeting at JSCA International Stadium on Friday, have appointed India wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan as the side’s captain.

Shami hasn't been in competitive cricket action since IPL 2025, where he picked up only six wickets in nine innings at an economy rate of 11.23 for Sunrisers Hyderabad. The veteran right-arm pacer, who last played for India in their victorious 2025 Champions Trophy campaign, was recently named in Bengal’s probables list for the Ranji Trophy.

Easwaran, the right-handed opener who’s warmed the bench in the ongoing Test series against England, will be the vice-captain. Akash, who picked a ten-wicket haul in India’s 336-run win in Birmingham, and is in action at The Oval, will handle pace bowling duties alongside Shami, Mukesh Kumar and Suraj Jaiswal.

Other prominent players include India all-rounder Riyan Parag and Jharkhand wicketkeeper-batter Kumar Kushagra. Teenaged left-handed opener Vaibhav Suryavanshi, who made heads turn with a 35-ball century in IPL 2025 for Rajasthan Royals and had a productive time on the U19 tour of England, is amongst the stand-by players.

The Duleep Trophy will be held in the old zonal format of six teams and marks the beginning of 2025/26 domestic cricket season. East Zone will begin their campaign with a quarter-final clash against North Zone at the BCCI Centre of Excellence Ground, with the game’s winner set to meet South Zone in the semi-final.

East Zone Squad: Ishan Kishan (c) (Jharkhand), Abhimanyu Easwaran (vc) (Bengal), Sandeep Pattnaik (Odisha), Virat Singh (Jharkhand), Denish Das (Assam), Sridam Paul (Tripura), Sharandeep Singh (Jharkhand), Kumar Kushagra (Jharkhand), Riyan Parag (Assam), Utkarsh Singh (Jharkhand), Manishi (Jharkhand), Suraj Jaiswal (Bengal), Mukesh Kumar (Bengal), Akash Deep (Bengal) and Mohammed Shami (Bengal)

Stand-bys: Mukhtar Hussain (Assam), Aasirwad Swain (Odisha), Vaibhav Suryavanshi (Bihar), Swastik Samal (Odisha), Sudip Kr Gharami (Bengal) and Rahul Singh (Assam)

--IANS

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