India's explosive wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan continued to skip Jharkhand's Ranji Trophy 2023-24 matches. Kishan defied the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Jay Shah and head coach Rahul Dravid’s directives.
Kishan was recently seen training in Baroda alongside Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Hardik Pandya and his brother Krunal Pandya.
Other players who missed Ranji matches
Along with Kishan, middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer and bowling all-rounder Deepak Chahar are two other players who were asked to join their respective state teams for the final round of league stages.
Meanwhile, BCCI has made it mandatory for players to play a minimum number of Ranji Trophy games to be eligible for the IPL auction pool.
What Jay Shah said
The BCCI secretary made it clear that the centrally contracted players cannot pick and choose matches. They will have to play Ranji Trophy unless injured if they are not with the senior team.
“All contracted players have been told on phone and I'll be writing to them too. If chairman of selectors, coach & captain want you to play red-ball cricket then you gotta play. ‘Nakhare Nahi Chalenge’ (no tantrums). And as far as Ishan Kishan is concerned, he is young, I am not saying this specifically about him as it will be applicable for all the players uniformly,” Shah told reporters earlier this week on the sidelines of an event in Rajkot.
"Everyone will have to play, otherwise, the chairman of the selection committee has given me his suggestions and I am going to give him a free hand to let him take his own calls freely," he added.
Dravid asked Kishan to play some cricket
While Dravid did not specifically say that Kishan has to play in the Ranji Trophy, he said that the 25-year-old needs to play some cricket to get back in the side.
"I just don't want to go on labouring about the Ishan Kishan point. Whenever he is ready, I didn't say he has to play domestic cricket, I said whenever he is ready... he needs to play some cricket and come back. The choice is his. We are not forcing him to do anything. We are in touch with him,” Dravid said.
"We know what it is. He hasn't yet started playing, right? At the moment, it's not something that we would consider. He is maybe not ready. He decides when he wants to be ready.”
Kishan's prolonged absence
Kishan requested to fly back home midway through the South Africa tour. He made himself unavailable for the T20I series against Afghanistan and the ongoing five-Test series against England.
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