BCCI Drops Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan from Central Contracts

The top level of the BCCI yearly central contracts, represented by the A+ category, sees no changes, retaining Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, and Ravindra Jadeja. The BCCI has expanded the list of contracted players from 26 to 30 for 2024, with notable omissions like Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan.

Kishan took a break from cricket for personal reasons during the South Africa tour, and returned to action only earlier this week in the DY Patil T20 tournament. The National Cricket Academy (NCA) cleared Iyer as fit before the selection for the second half of the ongoing Test series. However, he neither appeared for India nor for Mumbai in the week that followed.

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BCCI Recommends Priority for Domestic Cricket Over IPL and National Duties for Players

The BCCI release announcing the contracts ended with an uncharacteristic piece of information: “The BCCI has recommended that all athletes give precedence to participating in domestic cricket during periods when they are not representing the national team.”

Two weeks ago, the BCCI secretary Jay Shah had written a letter to the centrally contracted players to not prioritise the IPL over domestic cricket and national duties. The letter had warned them of “severe implications”.

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Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid Stress the Need for Hunger in Test Cricket

In his press conference after the Ranchi Test on Sunday, the India captain, Rohit Sharma, stated that players demonstrating a strong “hunger” for Test cricket will be given preference going forward. He said he realised Test cricket is a tough format, which needs players who will show the required hunger.

India coach Rahul Dravid clarify that Kishan was not select for the Tests against England because Kishan had not yet made himself available. Dravid further stated that Kishan would need to participate in some form of domestic cricket to be eligible for a comeback. ESPNcricinfo understands the team management had got in touch with him during the on-going Test series against England, but Kishan said he was not ready yet. In his absence, Dhruv Jurel debuted and won the Player-of-the-Match award in his second Test.

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