BCCI’s decision to drop Shreyas Iyer from the central contracts list came as a surprise for many as the middle-order batter was among the best performers for Team India in the Cricket World Cup at home last year.
Iyer, along with Ishan Kishan was left out of the annual contracts list. Both of them seemingly paid the price for failing to adhere to the board's mandate of playing domestic cricket.
The BCCI, 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."
Iyer, who was axed 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 quarter-final match against Baroda as he was allegedly recovering from a back spasm.
According to a report published in RevSportz, Shreyas Iyer informed Mumbai chief selector Raju Kulkarni that his back trouble would force him to pull out of the Ranji quarter-final. However, he didn’t report to the National Cricket Academy and an email from Nitin Patel, the head of sports science and medicine at the NCA, later declared him fit.
The report further claimed that Iyer turned up at KKR Academy in Mumbai and did training under some coaches despite opting out of Mumbai’s Ranji quarter-final citing back issues.
Shreyas Iyer’s decision to go to KKR Academy wasn’t well received by the BCCI chief selector Agarkar, who was in charge of finalizing the central contracts and the batter was eventually dropped from the list.
Speaking to RevSportz, an insider claimed that Iyer went to the KKR Academy as he had to build his workload.
“After playing 60 balls in a session, his back was building spasms. He had to build up his resistance. Now he is playing 200 balls per session. In three weeks, he has put on three kilos of muscles. The Mumbai Cricket Association and the Mumbai team head coach (Omkar Salvi) have been kept in the loop. In fact, the Mumbai coach visited the KKR Academy several times to monitor Iyer’s progress. And now he has made himself available for the Ranji Trophy semi-final against Tamil Nadu,” the insider said.
The source also revealed that Shreyas Iyer played the last year’s World Cup through pain and had to take painkiller injections.
“He skipped the IPL to play the World Cup. Even after the surgery, he took three painkiller injections to be pain-free for the World Cup. And yet, the pain returned during the semi-final and the final, and he played through it. Iyer was the only player who wasn’t given a break after the World Cup. He played the home T20I series against Australia and then went to South Africa. After returning from South Africa, he was asked to play a Ranji game in January, ahead of the first two Tests against England. He did that. Doesn’t a player have the liberty to train under a coach of his choice?”
The source also played down Iyer’s decision of not reporting at the NCA. “KL Rahul, too, went to London for the treatment of his quadriceps pain. Nobody has asked a question. And when was the last time Rahul turned up for a Ranji game? He is also an injury-prone cricketer who has missed series and matches. A player is the best judge in terms of assessing his body,” said the source.
(RevSportz Inputs)
