Ishan Kishan refused BCCI's offer to take part in England Test series: Report

Kishan, along with Shreyas Iyer was left out of the annual contracts list announced on February 28.

Indian cricketers Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer have been in the news for the last three days after being dropped from the BCCI central contracts list for the 2023-24 season. Both of them paid the price for failing to adhere to the board's mandate of playing domestic cricket.

Talking about Kishan, the wicketkeeper-batter had withdrawn from the Test series in South Africa last December, citing personal reasons. Since then, he has not been picked in any of the Indian squads.

Despite repeated reminders from head coach Rahul Dravid and BCCI secretary Jay Shah, the southpaw didn't make himself available for Jharkhand in the ongoing Ranji Trophy.

Now, a report published in ESPNcricinfo claimed that Kishan also refused BCCI's offer to play the ongoing Test series against England when the board got in touch with him.

In his absence, Dhruv Jurel made his debut and earned the Player-of-the-Match award in the fourth Test at Ranchi.

"ESPNcricinfo understands the team management had got in touch with him (Kishan) during the ongoing Test series against England, but Kishan said he was not ready yet," the report stated.

On the other hand, Shreyas Iyer, who was left out of the Test side after the second match against England in Vizag, didn't make himself available to play for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy for his side's final group stage game and then the quarter-finals citing back pain.

However, an email from Nitin Patel, the head of sports science and medicine at the National Cricket Academy, later declared the middle-order batter fit.

As a result, the BCCI removed the duo from the list of its annual contracts released on Wednesday (February 28).

The board, in its release, while announcing the list of centrally contracted players for the 2023-24 season confirmed that both Shreyas and Ishan weren't considered for the contract in the current round of recommendations.

The release also added, "The BCCI has recommended that all athletes give precedence to participating in domestic cricket during periods when they are not representing the national team."

Shreyas Iyer, however, has since been included in the Mumbai squad for their Ranji Trophy semifinal against Tamil Nadu while Ishan Kishan was recently seen playing the DY Patil T20 Cup.