Indian cricketers Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer on Wednesday paid the price for not paying heed to the BCCI diktat of playing domestic cricket. Iyer and Kishan were both axed from the central contracts announced by the BCCI. Both cricketers were surprisingly ignored, and that did not go down well with cricket fans who took to social media to bash the BCCI.
Ishan Kishan was in the middle of a cold war with the BCCI. The wicketkeeper-batter pulled out of India’s series against South Africa citing mental fatigue. The BCCI did not take the reason very kindly and asked Ishan Kishan to go back to playing Ranji Trophy to prove his mettle. However, Ishan ignored the request, which resulted in the snub. The wicketkeeper however took part in the DY Patil T20 Cup but that did very little to douse the flame.
Shreyas Iyer on the other hand was in the good books of BCCI but fell out due to a series of incidents. After Iyer was dropped from the Test squad, he complained of back spasm and skipped Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy match. Although he will return to play the Ranji Trophy semi-final, it came a little too late.
However, in spite of the shortcomings, that Iyer and Ishan enjoys the support of Indian cricket fans was evident by their reactions. While some pulled up Iyer’s World Cup stats to bash BCCI, others claimed Iyer was axed because he kept a straight face when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Indian dressing room after the 2023 ODI WC final. In case of Ishan Kishan, fans took digs at BCCI for axing him even when India have no proper wicketkeeper in Tests.