Hyderabad: Veteran India batter Sunil Gavaskar backed Shreyas Iyer after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) terminated his central contract for the 2023/24 season, mentioning that he had featured in the Ranji Trophy before the ongoing Test series against England began.
On February 28, the BCCI released a statement which stated that Iyer and wicket-keeper-batter Ishan Kishan "were not considered for the annual contracts in this round of recommendations". The Board increased the list by four names as the cricket body revealed the Annual Player Contracts for the Indian team for the 2023-24 season.
In the previous season, Shreyas held a Grade B contract, while Ishan Kishan had a Grade C contract. On Sunday, Gavaskar in his column for Mid-Day wrote, "The BCCI announced the list of the contracted players a few days back and as expected, Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were excluded from the contract list presumably for not playing Ranji Trophy cricket. 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 semifinals of the Ranji Trophy.”
The right-hand batter had appeared in 41-time champion Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy match against Andhra at the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) ground in Mumbai in January before the Tests against England. He then featured in India's squad for the first two Tests at Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam, but he failed to leave his mark, amassing only 104 runs without even scoring a half-century in four innings.
"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 quarterfinals, 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,” added Gavaskar, a veteran of 125 Tests.
The Mumbaikar was then dropped from the team for the remainder of the Test series against England and opted out of Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy quarter-final encounter against Baroda, citing back spasm. According to the reports, on the very next day, the head of sports sciences and medicine at the National Cricket Academy (NCA), Nitin Patel, informed the selectors that he was fit and no fresh injuries were incurred by him recently.
"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," penned Gavaskar, who is also a renowned broadcaster.
The 29-year-old, who has played 14 Tests for India, is currently playing for Mumbai against Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy semi-final, where he was dismissed for just three in the first innings.
On the other hand, Kishan hasn't played any competitive cricket since he had pulled out of the Test series against South Africa in the rainbow nation, complaining about mental fatigue, and eventually, his leave was granted by the selection committee.
Reportedly, he was then training with flamboyant India all-rounder Hardik Pandya in Baroda but didn't turn up to play for his state Jharkhand in the entire Ranji Trophy season. He recently returned to action at the ongoing DY Patil T20 tournament, a private T20 league, in Navi Mumbai.
Earlier, on Thursday, Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan and Former India coach Ravi Shastri also backed the duo by sharing a post on X.
Irfan Pathan questioned the BCCI's decision to drop Kishan and Iyer with a view that players like Hardik Pandya should be judged on the same parameter. He shared his opinion on X, formerly known as Twitter, and wrote, "If players like Hardik (Pandya) don't want to play red-ball cricket, should he and others like him participate in white-ball domestic cricket when they aren't on national duty?" "If this doesn't apply to all, then Indian cricket won't achieve the desired results!" he added.
Former India all-rounder Ravi Shastri also backed Iyer and Kishan. "In the game of cricket, comebacks define the spirit. Chin-up, Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan! Dig deep, face challenges, and come back even stronger. Your past achievements speak volumes, and I have no doubt you'll conquer once again," Shastri wrote in support of the pair on X.
Meanwhile, NCA head VVS Laxman has come up with a different view on the issue and praised BCCI for rewarding players, who have preferred to play domestic cricket.
"It's great to see that commitment to represent the country in the largest format of the game and emphasis to keep oneself match-ready by playing domestic cricket is being prioritised through the BCCI annual contracts. A wonderful move too to award contracts to budding fast bowlers so that they can operate without insecurities hanging over their heads," Laxman wrote on X.
The 74-year-old Gavaskar had also praised India's young sensation Dhruv Jurel and Shubman Gill for their gritty 72-run stand under pressure to help the hosts take an unassailable 3-1 lead, securing the five-wicket win on day four of the Ranchi Test.
"There’s been attacking, aggressive batting from England and some good old fashioned Test match batting from India that helped them to reduce the deficit in the first innings at Ranchi to just 46 when it could well have been another 100 more runs and then again in the second innings, there was great application and determination shown by the two youngsters, Shubman Gill and Dhruv Jurel that took India home to a 3-1 lead," Gavaskar had said.
"If any proof was needed of the talent at India’s disposal, the Ranchi Test match showed it most emphatically. The team that took the field was like the one that took the field in the fourth and final Test match at Brisbane in 2021. There were no big names there, just big hearts and a determination to show that they could take on the responsibility and shoulder any burden that was given to them,” elaborated Gavaskar.
“Credit also has to be given to the captains who handled the inexperienced players superbly, giving them the encouragement and belief that they were more than good enough to fill in the big gaps left by the big guys’ absence. They showed that they had learnt from the big guys too as they played above and beyond expectations to register victories that will be remembered for a long, long time,” he stressed.
"What it also showed was the difference captaincy makes. Pleasure to perform against pressure to perform makes for wins rather than narrow losses. Brisbane and Ranchi, both fourth Test matches of a series, should always be written in letters of gold in the history of Indian cricket as examples of how sheer love for the country can overcome any challenges," concluded Gavaskar.
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