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MUMBAI: Sending a strong message that not playing in the Ranji Trophy unless you are on national duty or are unfit will not be tolerated, the BCCI on Wednesday excluded India’s middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer and wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan from the list of 30 centrally contracted players.
TOI had reported on February 23 that not playing in the ongoing Ranji Trophy (at that point in time) may see Kishan and Iyer lose their central contracts.
Iyer missed the last league match and the quarterfinal of the Ranji Trophy, citing back pain. He has been included in Mumbai’s Ranji squad for the semifinal against Tamil Nadu from March 2 in Mumbai.
The BCCI has sent a terse message to those cricketers who seem to become selectively unfit. This is a much-needed move. But the BCCI also needs to apply rules such as this with fairness and sincerity against all errant cricketers. If rules are not applied equally, they are not rules at all.
Kishan, on the other hand, came back midway from India’s tour of South Africa due to ‘personal reasons’ in December last year. The explosive keeper-bat missed the Test series against England and didn’t play in the Ranji for Jharkhand.
Earlier this month, BCCI secretary Jay Shah had told the media in Rajkot and formally communicated to the BCCI’s contracted players, that all were obliged to play in the Ranji, unless they were on India duty or were recovering-from injuries-at the National Cricket Academy (NCA).
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“They have been informed on phone already and I’m going to write letters as well that if your chairman of selectors, your coach and your captain are asking for it then you will have to play red-ball cricket,” Shah had said.
Kishan has returned to competitive cricket and turned out for RBI on Tuesday in the DY Patil T20 in Navi Mumbai. He scored 19.
Middle-order batsmen KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and pacer Mohammed Siraj have all been elevated to the Grade A category while keeper-bat Rishabh Pant, who has been out of action since January 2023 while recovering from a horrific road accident, finds himself in Grade B.
Iyer was part of the Grade B list last season while Kishan had a Grade C contract. “Please note that Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were not considered for the annual contracts in this round of recommendations,” the BCCI stated in a media release, adding: “The BCCI has recommended that all athletes give precedence to participating in domestic cricket during periods when they are not representing the national team.”
Even though he has been out of action due to an ankle injury since getting injured during India’s match against Bangladesh in the 2023 World Cup in October, Hardik Pandya- along with R Ashwin and Mohammed Shami-have been retained in Grade A. “When approached to play in the WTC final last year, Pandya had made it clear that his body wasn’t ready for red-ball cricket. He wants to focus on the shorter formats since the last few years, and the selectors are fine with it,” a source told TOI.
Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja have been retained in the A+ category.
Axar Patel, who had a Grade A contract last season, has been moved to Grade B after losing his place in the India Test side to Kuldeep Yadav. After a string of fine performances across formats, Kuldeep has been elevated from Grade C to B while India’s new batting sensation Yashasvi Jaiswal, who has entered the BCCI contracts list for the first time, has earned himself a Grade B contract.
Suryakumar Yadav is the only player in the Grade B category to be retained from the previous season. India’s Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara, currently excluded from the Indian team, has failed to get a contract this season, having been in Grade B previously.
Rinku Singh and Tilak Varma are among the many new faces included in the list. The duo was added to the Grade C category, which includes 15 players. The annual contracts for the 2023-24 season will be applicable from Oct 1, 2023 to Sept 30, 2024. Players who feature in a minimum of three Tests or 8 ODIs or 10 T20Is within this period will be automatically included in the Grade C category on a pro-rata basis. So, if Dhruv Jurel and Sarfaraz Khan, who have played two Tests against England, feature in the Dharamshala Test, they will make it to the Grade C.
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