Nothing seems to be going right for India batsman Shreyas Iyer, at the moment. First, a string of poor performances, then his inability to turn up for Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy matches, and now ouster from BCCIs list of centrally contracted players.
This exclusion seems to be strong message from the BCCI, that all players need to play domestic cricket. All this could affect a player badly, but KKR coach Chandrakant Pandit feels that Iyer won’t be impacted by all this.
“I will not say Shreyas must be included in a certain Grade, but he is definitely a player who can serve India in any format. He has had an injury issue, but it was solved. He is a good performer and even scored a century [105 against New Zealand in 2021 at Kanpur] on Test debut.
“In our future series, there may be some players who will not be in form, so naturally, Shreyas will be there. He will play domestic cricket and can perform in the IPL. He is going to be useful for Indian cricket in any format,” Pandit said in an interview with Mid Day.
Pandit, one of the most successful Ranji coaches, though was surprised that Iyer faced the axe from the contracts list.
“It’s surprising that Shreyas was not considered for the annual contracts, because he is India’s all-format player. We don’t know the reason, but I think he should walk into the pool of India’s contracted players.
“He could have definitely fitted in any Grade. Knowing Shreyas, I don’t think it will affect him. He will definitely fight and perform. He has that fighting spirit,” Pandit added.
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