Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) head coach Chandrakant Pandit has expressed surprise that the captain of his IPL team Shreyas Iyer lost his place in the BCCI central contracts.
Iyer, along with Ishan Kishan was left out of the annual contracts list. Both batters seemed to have paid the price for ignoring the board’s directives to take part in the Ranji Trophy.
Shreyas, who was dropped from 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 as he was allegedly recovering from a back spasm.
However, a report later claimed that the physio at the NCA declared him fit, saying that the middle-order batter had no fresh injuries and was fit to play.
Subsequently, Iyer was accused of faking an injury and some reports suggested that the cricketer may have lost his contract because of the same.
Amid the speculations, Chandrakant Pandit has said that Shreyas Iyer was indeed injured but he managed to recover in time.
"I will not say Shreyas must be included in a certain Grade, but he is definitely a player who can serve India in any format. He has had an injury issue, but it was solved. He is a good performer and even scored a century [105 against New Zealand in 2021 at Kanpur] on Test debut," Pandit told Mid-Day.
"In our future series, there may be some players who will not be in form, so naturally Shreyas will be there. He will play domestic cricket and can perform in the IPL. He is going to be useful for Indian cricket in any format," he added.
The KKR coach is certain that this setback will only motivate Shreyas Iyer to bounce back stronger.
"It's surprising that Shreyas was not considered for the annual contracts, because he is India's all-format player. We don't know the reason, but I think he should walk into the pool of India's contracted players. He could have definitely fitted in any Grade. Knowing Shreyas, I don't think it will affect him. He will definitely fight and perform. He has that fighting spirit," Pandit remarked.
Shreyas Iyer has played 14 Tests, 59 ODIs and 51 T20Is so far, amassing over 4000 runs with six hundreds and 31 half-centuries.
