Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan might lose central contracts for skipping Ranji Trophy games - Reports

The latest reports emerging from the Indian cricket board present a gloomy picture for Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan. Away from on-field cricket citing respective reasons, the batting duo is said to be facing an axe from BCCI’s central contract list for the upcoming season over skipping Ranji Trophy matches despite strict directives from the board.

"The selectors, led by Ajit Agarkar, have almost finalised the list of centrally contracted players for the 2023-24 season too, which the BCCI will announce soon.

“Kishan and Iyer are likely to be excluded from that list, as both haven't been playing domestic cricket despite the BCCI's diktat to do so," a source close to the information told Times of India (TOI).

Despite BCCI’s first warning to all centrally contracted players who havenot been picked in any India squad nor are getting treated for an injury at the NCA to appear for their respective state teams in the Ranji Trophy, the concerned players disobeyed the orders.

While Ishan Kishan has remained unavailable for selection since the white-ball tour of South Africa late last year, citing mental fatigue, middle-order batter Iyer was dropped from India’s squad for the final three Tests on precautionary grounds as he continues to recover from a back injury.

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While Ishan Kishan skipped the Ranji matches and instead was training with his IPL team (Mumbai Indians) captain Hardik Pandya in Baroda, Iyer remained unavailable for selection for Mumbai for their last league match against Assam at BKC and their ongoing knockout tie against Baroda complaining of back stiffness.

Confusion around Iyer’s fitness

Iyer remains firm on his stance of suffering from a persistent back injury that has kept him away from on-field cricket since last year. On the flip side, the latest email from the head of sports, science and medicine at the NCA – Nitin Patel, contradicted his claim.

Per Nitin’s email to the BCCI and selectors, Iyer is not due to get treated for any fresh injuries and was declared fit.

However, addressing this issue, a source close to Iyer said, “Patel's email to the BCCI was written after the second Test against England. Since then, a back problem has bothered Iyer.

“Iyer was one of India's top-performing batsmen in the ODI World Cup in India last year. He won't lose the contract just because he missed the odd Ranji match," the source insisted.

Meanwhile, BCCI secretary Jay Shah, after his first warning to the players, rewrote to them, this time sending a stern warning of all those players facing severe repercussions in case of repeated fouls.