Indian cricket team wicket-keeper batter Ishan Kishan made a surprise appearance for India C during the Duleep Trophy second round match against India B at Rural Development Trust Stadium B in Anantapur on Thursday. Kishan did not play the first round of Duleep Trophy matches due to a groin injury he picked up while playing for Jharkhand in the Buchi Babu tournament. Following the announcement of India’s squad for the first Test match against Bangladesh, a lot of changes were made to the Duleep Trophy squads but Kishan did not feature in the announcement. As a result, fans were left stunned when he was named in the India C playing XI for the match against India B.

BRING BACK ISHAN KISHANpic.twitter.com/dhxohg2NPU

— Virat Kohli (Parody) (@imVKohji) September 11, 2024

Kishan was initially part of the India D squad but Sanju Samson was named as his replacement after he missed the first round of matches. The other thing that confused the fans was the fact that BCCI said in its media release that no changes were made to the India C squad.

Ishan Kishan completed his most needed half century in Duleep trophy in only 48 balls

So proud of him!!@ishankishan51 #IshanKishan#DuleepTrophy #DuleepTrophy2024 pic.twitter.com/wJ5Cx583K5

— Ishan’s(@IshanWK32) September 12, 2024

The squads for second round of ongoing Duleep Trophy starting from September 12 were announced on Tuesday by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), with star players Shubman Gill, KL Rahul, Kuldeep Yadav among those omitted.

#IshanKishan is batting . It’s a golden chance boy . Make it big and put ur case for #TeamIndia selection.

score credit : Cricinfo#IshanKishan pic.twitter.com/jxAsyStIfr

— Satvinder Meel (@s4sattu) September 12, 2024

A statement from BCCI said, “The Men’s Selection Committee have announced certain changes for the second round of the Duleep Trophy starting from 12th September in Anantapur.” India A Captain Gill, Rahul, Dhruv Jurel, Kuldeep and Akash Deep have been named in India’s Test squad for the series against Bangladesh and will not feature in the upcoming round.

Ishan was announced as 1st choice wk for india d for 1st round then he got ruled out due to groin injury & sanju replaced him in d side, then he was not part of any squad for 2nd round but right now he is in playing 11 of India C which was announced as unchanged for 2nd round pic.twitter.com/V2BsZow9xA

— Vishal (@Fanpointofviews) September 12, 2024

The selectors have named Pratham Singh (Railways) as a replacement for Gill, Akshay Wadkar (Vidarbha CA) as a replacement for KL Rahul and SK Rasheed (Andhra CA) as a replacement for Jurel. Left-arm spinner Shams Mulani will replace Kuldeep in the squad whereas Aaqib Khan (UPCA) will replace Akashdeep in the squad.

Mayank Agarwal has been named as the Captain of India A.

Updated India A squad: Mayank Agarwal (C), Riyan Parag, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Tanush Kotian, Prasidh Krishna, Khaleel Ahmed, Avesh Khan, Kumar Kushagra, Shaswat Rawat, Pratham Singh, Akshay Wadkar, SK Rasheed, Shams Mulani, Aaqib Khan

India B’s Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant have been named in India’s squad and the selectors have named Suyash Prabhudessai and Rinku Singh as replacements respectively. Fast bowler Yash Dayal has received his maiden national call-up while Sarfaraz Khan, who too has been named in India’s squad, will feature in the second-round game. Himanshu Mantri (Madhya Pradesh CA) has been added to the squad.

Updated India B squad: Abhimanyu Easwaran (C), Sarfaraz Khan, Musheer Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Navdeep Saini, Mukesh Kumar, Rahul Chahar, R Sai Kishore, Mohit Awasthi, N Jagadeesan (WK), Suyash Prabhudessai, Rinku Singh, Himanshu Mantri (WK)

As Axar Patel will join Team India from Team D, he will be replaced by Nishant Sindhu (Haryana CA). Tushar Deshpande is ruled out of the second round owing to a niggle and he will be replaced by India A’s Vidwath Kaverappa.

Updated India D squad: Shreyas lyer (C), Atharva Taide, Yash Dubey, Devdutt Padikkal, Ricky Bhui, Saransh Jain, Arshdeep Singh, Aditya Thakare, Harshit Rana, Akash Sengupta, KS Bharat (WK), Saurabh Kumar, Sanju Samson (WK), Nishant Sindhu, Vidwath Kaverappa

(With IANS inputs)