Duleep Trophy: Ishan Kishan to captain East Zone; Vaibhav Sooryavanshi named vice-captain


Vaibhav Sooryavanshi‘s roaring initiation into the IPL and international cricket will now be followed by a proper glimpse of his red-ball game after he was named East Zone‘s vice-captain for the 2026-27 season-opening Duleep Trophy.
The Ishan Kishan-led squad also comprises two other Test players: Mohammed Shami and Mukesh Kumar. Riyan Parag and Akash Deep weren’t considered as they continue to recuperate from surgeries and are still in rehab. Deep is recuperating from back surgery, while Parag is recovering from the right shoulder surgery he underwent after IPL 2026.
Sooryavanshi is expected to open the batting with Bengal veteran Abhimanyu Easwaran, who will be hoping to make amends after losing his spot in the India A setup late last year. With 113 first-class games, Easwaran is the most experienced member and the highest run-scorer in the squad. Shikhar Mohan, fresh off a maiden Ranji season where he top-scored for Jharkhand with 613 runs, will be the reserve opener.

While Kishan is expected to keep wicket, the squad also includes a second Jharkhand wicketkeeper, Kumar Kushagra. The other Jharkhand players to earn a call-up are top-order batter Virat Singh and spin allrounder Anukul Roy, who featured earlier in the season for India A during their victorious tri-series campaign in Sri Lanka in June

Sooryavanshi has so far featured in just eight first-class matches with modest numbers: 207 runs in 12 innings at an average of 17.25, with a best of 93. His most recent first-class outing was during a Plate league Ranji fixture for Bihar against Meghalaya last year.

Shami, who picked up 37 wickets in the 2025-26 Ranji season across seven matches, will be the pace spearhead of what seems like an all-Bengal pace attack with Mukesh and Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal for company. Shahbaz Ahmed, also from Bengal, is the spin allrounder. Abhijit Sarkar was the lone representative from Tripura in the 15-member squad.

Abhimanyu Easwaran, Sudip Gharami, Mohammed Shami, Mukesh Kumar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Suraj Jaiswal, Ishan Kishan (capt), Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (vice-captain), Virat Singh, Kumar Kushagra, Shikhar Mohan, Subranshu Senapati, Abhijit Sarkar, Anukul Roy, Denish Das



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