By Admin 
Duleep trophy: The East Zone team has suffered a major setback before the start of the Dalip Trophy 2025. Team captain and wicketkeeper batsman Ishaan Kishan has withdrawn from the tournament. Now Odisha’s young cricketer Ashirwad Swain has got a chance in his place. The 20 -year -old Swain will be as a wicketkeeper batsman East Zone. The tournament will be played in Bengaluru from 28 August to 11 September.
Who is blessing Swain?
20 -year -old Ashirwad Swain may be new internationally, but his performance in domestic cricket has been continuously better. Swain has played 11 first class matches for Odisha so far. During this time he scored 615 runs, including 3 half -centuries and his best score was 77 runs. His performance in wicketkeeping has also been excellent. Swain has so far done 32 catches and 3 stumpings. His biggest strength is considered to be the quick and fast reflex behind the wicket. This is the reason why he has got a direct opportunity in the East Zone team in the absence of Ishaan Kishan.
The Odisha Cricket Association, while giving information about their selection on social media, wrote that Ashirwad Swain will be part of the East Zone team in place of Ishaan Kishan in the Dalip Trophy.
Captain changed in the absence of Ishaan Kishan
Ishaan Kishan played his first match international match against England in March 2021 and has since played 2 Tests, 27 ODIs and 32 T20 International matches for India. He played his last competitive match during county cricket in England. In the absence of Ishaan Kishan, the team will now be commanded by Abhimanyu Ishwaran. 29 -year -old Ishwar is an experienced batsman in domestic cricket and has scored 7841 runs in 103 first class matches played so far. Initially he was made vice -captain, but now he will take full responsibility of the team.
The first match will be from North Zone
The first match of the East Zone team will be played against the North Zone from August 28 to August 31 in the quarter -finals of the Dalip Trophy. The match will be held at the BCCI Center of Excellence Ground, Bangalore. North Zone is commanded by Shubman Gill and the team also includes young stars like Yash Dhul, Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana.
East Zone Team
Abhimanyu Ishwaran (captain), Ashirwad Swain (wicketkeeper), Sandeep Patnaik, Virat Singh, Danish Das, Shim Paul, Sharandeep Singh, Kumar Kushagra, Ryan Parag, Utkarsh Singh, Manishi, Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep and Mohammad Shami.
Standby player- Mukhtar Hussain, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Swastik Samal, Sudeep Kumar Ghami and Rahul Singh.