Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer could be left out from new BCCI central contracts list: Reports 

Indian cricketers Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer might not get central contracts from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) when the new list is announced.

Both Kishan and Shreyas have been under the scanner over their refusal to feature in the Ranji Trophy 2024 despite clear instructions from the Indian cricket board. While Kishan is said to be working on his technique ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Shreyas was recently dropped from the Test team over poor form. There are conflicting reports about his fitness.

As per a report in The Times of India, Kishan and Shreyas could be without a central contract when the updated list is announced by BCCI.

"The selectors, led by Ajit Agarkar, has almost finalised the list of centrally contracted players for the 2023-24 season too, which the BCCI will announce soon. Kishan and Iyer are likely to be excluded from that list, as both haven't been playing domestic cricket despite the BCCI's diktat to do so," a source was quoted as saying by the paper.

The paper, however, also quoted a source close to Shreyas as saying that the batter was left out of the last three Tests against England because of a back issue.

The right-handed batsman had informed the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) that he was not available for selection due to back spasms. However, Nitin Patel, the head of sports science and medicine at the National Cricket Academy, in an email to the BCCI and the selectors, wrote that Shreyas was 'fit', leading to further confusion.

"Patel's email to the BCCI was written after the second Test against England. Since then, a back problem has bothered Iyer. Iyer was one of India's top-performing batsmen in the ODI World Cup in India last year. He won't lose the contract just because he missed the odd Ranji match,” the source was quoted as saying by TOI.

Speaking of the 2022-23 central contracts, Kishan was in C category, while Shreyas was in B, earning ₹1 crore and ₹3 crore respectively.

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The curious cases of Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer

Ishan was part of the Indian team for the two-match Test series in South Africa earlier this year. He, however, pulled out due to personal reasons and has not played any cricket since. His last match for India was a T20I against Australia in Guwahati in November 2023.

Shreyas featured in the first two Tests against England, but struggled for runs. He was not picked for the next three Tests amid reports of injury issues. However, the BCCI did not make any statement on his fitness while announcing the squad for the last three Tests.