Chief Selector Ajit Agarkar declined to extend Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan’s BCCI Central Contract.
In a significant decision, Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer’s central contracts were not renewed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for the 2023–24 season. The decision was reportedly made because the two ignored repeated board orders to skip domestic matches. Remarkably, Iyer’s back issue kept him out of Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy 2024 quarterfinal matchup with Baroda.
He was deemed fit to play, nevertheless, by the National Cricket Academy’s (NCA) medical staff. Iyer was spotted at the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) school as well. Chief Selector Ajit Agarkar was reportedly displeased with Iyer for missing the Ranji match.
RevSportz reported that BCCI decided not to renew his contract in large part because of this aspect. In his capacity as head selector, Agarkar was notably in charge of deciding which players would receive contracts, and as such, he chose to remove Iyer’s name from the list.
Iyer has declared himself available for the current Ranji Trophy semi-final match between Tamil Nadu and Mumbai’s BKC Ground, given the entire situation. Averaging 66.25 from 11 innings and striking at 113.24 with two hundreds and three fifties, the 29-year-old had an incredible ODI World Cup 2023.
He hasn’t played well in Tests since 2023, though, as he has only managed to score 187 runs at an average of 17 from 12 innings. In his past 13 innings, Iyer has failed to reach a half-century. The Mumbai-born batsman scored 104 runs in the first two Test innings of the current India vs. England series, and as a result of his subpar performance, he was dropped.
Kishan belonged to Grade C, while Iyer was in Grade B.
Ishan Kishan has also been cut off the contract list, in addition to Iyer. Notably, Iyer earned INR 3 crore per year as part of Grade B of the central contract in March 2023, whereas Ishan Kishan was placed in Grade C and earned INR 1 crore per year.
