File photo of Shreyas Iyer (left) and Ishan Kishan.© BCCI
Both Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were overlooked when the BCCI announced the central contracts for 2023-24 season. The snub gave rise to several speculations. Given that the board firmly pushed forward its mandate that players need to be available for domestic cricket if they are fit and not on national duty, many media reports claimed that the duo’s unavailability during their state’s respective domestic matches led to their ouster. Though Iyer played the Ranji Trophy semi-final and final game for Mumbai, both the matches took place well after the BCCI announced the central contracts.
While a lot of speculation have already been made about the possible reasons that could have led to ouster of the two players, former India batter Robin Uthappa said that he wants to know “the truth”. He shared in opinions while talking to Hindustan Times.
“I think we as individuals and as perhaps today, I see myself on your side of the table as well. As a broadcaster, I also want to know answers. I also like to know what the truth is. Having said that, we won’t know what the truth is, unless it’s spoken by the stakeholders of this piece, and that is the players themselves and the ones involved with the players themselves, and that’s the captain, the coaches, support staff,” said Uthappa.
“I think we’ll only keep speculating about all of it until we hear from these players in particular or from the selectors in particular. And I think we can all speculate as much as we want. But for me, I would like to reserve till I actually know for sure what’s happened and what transpired it,” he added.
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