There was a clamour for his selection in the Indian playing XI for the WTC final against Australia but Ishan Kishan seems to be reluctant about a possible Test career as he opted out of the East Zone team for the Duleep Trophy tournament with a series in the West Indies within a month's time. India A skipper Abhimanyu Easwaran will be leading the side while former India spinner Shahbaz Nadeem will be his deputy.
But the East Zone selectors were baffled when they came to know that Kishan didn't want to play the first-class tournament which is being held right before the two-Test series in the Caribbean starting July 12.
"Since he was in India squad for WTC final and KS Bharat, the man who kept wickets is playing for South Zone, we asked Zonal selection committee convenor Debasish Chakraborty to tell us if we could select Kishan," an East Zone selection committee member told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
"As he is a senior India regular in white ball, he would have got the captaincy. Chakraborty got in touch with Ishan over phone and came back and told us that he is not interested in playing Duleep Trophy. We were not told if he has an injury or not. Just that he doesn't want to play," the selector said.
It was learnt that once Kishan conveyed his decision, Tripura selector Jayanta Dey wanted Wriddhiman Saha and he was also contacted.
"To be fair to Wriddhiman, he said that Duleep Trophy is for India hopefuls. If I am never going to play for India, then doesn't make sense in preventing a youngster from making a case. Hence we selected Abhishek Porel, who was the third choice," he added.
There was a minor controversy as Niraj Singh, the representative from Bihar, who attended selection committee meeting, was an administrator and not a former cricketer.
Squad: A Easwaran (capt), Santanu Mishra, Sudip Gharami, Riyan Parag, A. Majumdar, Bipin Saurabh, A Porel (wk), K Kushagra (wk), S Nadeem (vc), Shahbaz Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Anukul Roy, M Mura Singh, Ishan Porel.