Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer could be axed from BCCI central contracts list: Report

Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer could face the ire of BCCI selectors and lose their central contracts for the 2023-24 season after missing Ranji Trophy matches in their time out of Team India. Kishan pulled out of India Test squad in South Africa due to 'mental fatigue' has not been picked since. He, however, did not use the free time to play for Jharkhand in Ranji Trophy.

He is currently training with his Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya in Baroda with an eye on IPL 2024.

Shreyas Iyer was dropped from Team India squad ahead of the third Test against England due to poor form. And he also decided to miss Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy matches against Assam and Baroda.

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Centrally contracted India players missing red-ball cricket has not gone down well with BCCI. Jay Shah, the general secretary, had recently said that contracted players who are fit should play domestic cricket. And it has been now reported that Kishan and Iyer may be removed from BCCI’s central contract list for 2023-24 season.

“The selectors, led by Ajit Agarkar, has 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 told Times of India.

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In the 2022-23 contact list, Kishan was added in C tier list, while Iyer was included in B tier category. They earned Rs 1 crore and Rs 3 crore respectively.

The report also shed light on Iyer and his back issue. It was earlier stated in a report that Iyer skipped Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy matches sighting a back problem, but National Cricket Academy’s (NCA) head of sports science and medicine, Nitin Patel, wrote to BCCI that the batter was 'fit' .

The TOI report quoted a source who revealed that Nitin Patel’s mail was written after the second Test, while Iyer developed the issue after it.

“Patel’s email to the BCCI was written after the second Test against England. Since then, a back problem has bothered Iyer,” the source said. “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.”