The BCCI’s decision not to award a central contract to Shreyas Iyer It has not been well received by many. The board recently announced the list of centrally contracted players and stated that neither Shreyas Iyer nor Ishan Kishan were considered for the contracts.
While Kishan’s omission was highly expected after he ignored the Indian team management and the BCCI board to play Ranji games, not many expected Shreyas Iyer to lose his central contract. The BCCI was reportedly upset with the batsman for not playing Mumbai’s Ranji quarter-final against Baroda after he was dropped from the team for the last three Tests of the ongoing series against England.
Shreyas Iyer retired from the game citing back pain and also decided not to visit the National Cricket Academy for rehabilitation. However, Nitin Patel, NCA’s head of sports science and medicine, wrote an email to the selectors and team management informing them that the Mumbai batsman was fit.
Shreyas Iyer fighting with his back:
After retiring from the Ranji game and not appearing for the NCA, Shreyas Iyer appeared at the Kolkata Knight Riders Academy in Mumbai and trained there. According to RevSportz, chief selector Ajit Agarkar was furious with the batsman’s actions. Agarkar was responsible for finalizing the central contracts and finally decided to remove the Mumbai star from the list.
However, the report has stated that there is more to the entire episode than meets the eye. The media outlet claimed that the batsman actually has problems with his back and reported to the KKR academy just to increase his workload.
“After playing 60 balls in one session, his back was spasming. He had to increase his stamina. He now plays 200 balls per session. In three weeks he has gained three kilos of muscle.
“The Mumbai Cricket Association and the head coach of the Mumbai team (Omkar Salvi) have been kept informed. In fact, the Mumbai coach visited the KKR Academy several times to track Iyer’s progress. And now he is available for the Ranji Trophy semi-final against Tamil Nadu.” a source told the media outlet.
“He skipped the IPL to play the World Cup. Even after surgery, he received three injections of painkillers so he could be pain-free at the World Cup. And yet, the pain returned during the semi-final and final, and he overcame it. Iyer was the only player who was not given rest after the World Cup.
“He played the T20I series at home against Australia and then went to South Africa. After returning from South Africa, he was asked to play a Ranji match in January, before the first two Tests against England. He did that. Doesn’t a player have the freedom to train with the coach of his choice? the source added.
Iyer will be back in action later this month in IPL 2024. He will lead KKR in IPL 2024. The tournament is scheduled to begin on March 22, while KKR will open their campaign on March 23 against Sunrisers Hyderabad.