File photo of India cricket team star Shreyas Iyer© AFP
Since the last one week, the one news which has made a lot of noise is the exclusion of Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer from the BCCI’s latest annual contract list. The two stars have been strongly in BCCI scheme of things in the past one year. They were part of important events and till very recently played in the Indian cricket team. Ishan Kishan was last part of the squad that toured South Africa before he went on a break while Iyer was part of the first two Tests against England, before he was dropped.
The reluctance of the duo to play domestic cricket is being seen as a reason behind their exclusion. Kishan after going on break trained with Hardik Pandya but missed Ranji Trophy matches for his state team Jharkhand. Shreyas Iyer missed a Ranji Trophy game for his state team Mumbai and claimed he was unfit. However, according to a report in Indian express, the NCA report on him was contradictory.
Several reports have claimed that Iyer attended a Kolkata Knight Riders pre-IPL camp during this time. Iyer is the skipper of KKR. According to a report in the Revsportz, BCCI chief selector Ajit Agarkar was “furious” when he came to know about this development that Iyer was attending an IPL camp despite complaining of a back problem. It is the BCCI selectors who recommend about the final contract list.
“Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were not considered for the annual contracts in this round of recommendations,” the BCCI said in its release while announcing the Annual Player Contracts for Team India (Senior Men) for the 2023-24 season (October 1st, 2023 to September 30th, 2024).
“The BCCI has recommended that all athletes give precedence to participating in domestic cricket during periods when they are not representing the national team,” it added.
Out-of-favour India batter Shreyas Iyer will be motivated to prove a point and serve a timely reminder of his skillset as he gets back to domestic action when the record 41-time champions Mumbai take on Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy semifinal in Mumbai on Saturday. Dropped from the Indian Test side and discarded from BCCI’s list of contracted players after he did not make himself available for the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal due to groin and back trouble, Iyer has recovered completely to join Mumbai for the key clash.
Iyer would be key in Mumbai’s scheme of things specially against Tamil Nadu’s quality spin bowling, which has been one of their key weapons this season.
With PTI inputs
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