Sunil Gavaskar has voiced his support for Shreyas Iyer and questioned Ishan Kishan’s absence from Jharkhand’s Ranji Trophy team after both players were excluded from BCCI’s central contracts ahead of IPL 2024. While Gavaskar sympathized with Iyer, he highlighted Kishan’s decision not to play for Jharkhand.
Sunil Gavaskar discussed Iyer’s situation, noting that Iyer informed team management of his back issues before the 3rd Test against England. Despite being cleared by NCA trainers, Iyer was excluded from subsequent tests. Gavaskar also questioned Kishan’s absence from Jharkhand’s Ranji Trophy squad.
Here is Sunil Gavaskar’s statement:
“Nobody still knows why Kishan has not turned up for Jharkhand in the Ranji Trophy, while at the time of writing this column, Iyer was in the Mumbai team to play the semi-finals of the Ranji Trophy. Iyer had also played in the Ranji Trophy game as asked by the Indian team management just before this Test series started, so it’s not as if he has refused to play the Ranji Trophy at all.”
“He did miss the quarter-finals, but that was also the time he had informed the team management of his inability to play the third Test match due to some pain in his back if he batted for some length of time. However, the trainers at the NCA certified that his markers were clean and they found him fit to play. That seemed to have gone against Iyer. Threshold of pain is an individual thing and no trainer can judge that.”
Both players were dropped from the BCCI contract list for failing to play domestic cricket despite not being in the national side. Sunil Gavaskar hinted that the punishment might be harsh on Iyer, as he had played in the Ranji Trophy before the England series.
The decision to drop Iyer and Kishan follows BCCI’s directive for contracted players to participate in domestic cricket. Hardik Pandya retained his Grade A contract despite not playing since the World Cup due to injury.
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