The Indian pacer Ishant Sharma, who earlier was named in the India Blue side for the Duleep trophy, has now been called again in the team on the instructions of selectors. A day before the start of the tournament, he had confirmed to the selectors that he would not be part of the pink ball series due to him being in England.
Ishant was looking for a county stint, but the deal did not finalise. He returned to India and the selection committee led by MSK Prasad forced Ishant to be part of Suresh Raina led India Blue side for the Duleep Trophy,
“Yes, Ishant has reached Kanpur. He will be playing for the India Blue team led by Suresh Raina. He has been way short of match practice and high time he hits the straps. It was the national selectors, who instructed him to play this particular Duleep Trophy game,” a source told PTI.
He hasn’t been selected in the India A squad for the New Zealand A series and there remains around two weeks before the start of Ranji Trophy, so the selectors decided to call Ishant to play Duleep Trophy.
A regular member of Indian Test team, Ishant is not a usual member of playing XI now, as skipper Virat Kohli prefers Umesh Yadav and Mohammad Shami over him. He was the member of the Indian team for the Sri Lanka series as well, but did not play even one Test.
Despite that, he is still the need for the team, as his experience will come into play when India travels to South Africa, England, and Australia next year. Ishant will walk in the playing XI to spearhead the pace bowling line-up.
Along with him, Pankaj Singh has also been added to the India Blue team, which has strengthened the Suresh Raina’s team balance.
Coming to India Green side, the Parthiv Patel-led team will now get the services of Dhawal Kulkarni, who missed the first game. Though they will miss out on Murali Vijay, whose name doesn’t feature in the team list provided by the host state association.