Ishan Kishan made his Duleep Trophy comeback on Thursday (September 12), but there was confusion over the manner of his return, and which team he was representing.
Kishan made his comeback to red-ball cricket when he represented Jharkhand in the Buchi Babu invitational tournament earlier this year. Since losing his BCCI central contract at the start of this calendar year, he had only played in the IPL before that.
On the road back to national team contention, another step was taken when he was named in the India D squad led by Shreyas Iyer, for the Duleep Trophy tournament, the curtain-raiser for India's domestic season.
A flurry of glorious strokes from Riyan Parag in his short time at the crease 👏
— Wisden India (@WisdenIndia) September 12, 2024
Watch here ➡️ https://t.co/hDge4OC9Us pic.twitter.com/oDZzlJpIms
August 14: Ishan Kishan named in India D squad
The squads, announced on August 14, 2024were only for the first round of matches, as the players selected to represent India in the upcoming Test series against Bangladesh would leave their teams after that. Therefore, changes were expected between the first and second round.
On August 27, the BCCI announced that Mohammed Siraj, Umran Malik and Ravindra Jadeja had been withdrawn from the tournament with their replacements also announced. In the revised list of squads, Kishan's name was still present as expected in India D.
September 4: Ishan Kishan ruled out of first round with injury
On September 4, however, Kishan was withdrawn from the India D squad due to a groin injury, as a BCCI release stated he had been ruled out of the first round. Suryakumar Yadav and Prasidh Krishna were also pulled out of their squads. Sanju Samson was named in the India D squad as the replacement for Kishan.
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On September 10, the BCCI announced the squad selected to play for India against Bangladesh, and put out a release detailing the various changes made to the four Duleep Trophy squads. They named the updated squads for each team, along with a line at the end stating: "India C squad remains unchanged for the second round."
In this squads list, Kishan was not named in the India D squad, but his replacement Sanju Samson was. Kishan was not named in any of the other squads either.
September 12: Ishan Kishan plays second round match for India C
On Thursday (September 12) morning, the BCCI's website and social media accounts announced the playing XIs for the two matches – India A vs India D and India B vs India C.
India C - Playing XI #IndBvIndC #DuleepTrophy pic.twitter.com/tfo3irtfzG
— BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) September 12, 2024
In India C's playing XI, an "Ishan" (with no surname provided) had been listed. Sanju Samson had also been named as the wicketkeeper for India D.
It was soon confirmed by reporters at the venue of the match that Ishan Kishan was indeed turning out for India C, with no information made available before the teams had been named. It also emerged that his inclusion had been a late change to the squads (again, with no announcement made).
Seems the India-C squad was updated yesterday (Wednesday) to include #IshanKishan, who's arrived and practised with the squad yesterday.#DuleepTrophy #INDBvsINDC
— Prasanna Venkatesan (@prasreporter) September 12, 2024
It may have been that Kishan recovered from his groin injury ahead of schedule, and so was able to make it to Anantapur, where both matches are taking place simultaneously, in order to play in the match. But it remains to be seen why his name was excluded from the updated squads, and why he was switched from his original India D to India C.
In the match, Kishan made his way to a brisk half-century, scoring at close to a run-a-ball.
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