Kolkata Knight Riders Chandrakant Pandit is taken aback knowing that the captain of his Indian Premier League team Shreyas Iyer lost his place in the BCCI central contracts. Iyer, along with Ishan Kishan was dropped from the list after failing to adhere to the board’s mandate of playing domestic cricket. During their time away, neither Iyer nor Ishan turned up for their state teams in the Ranji Trophy, which did not sit well with the top brass, who then decided to pull the plug.
In Iyer’s case, what ticked off the selectors was that he apparently faked an injury to get himself out of playing Ranji Trophy. Iyer reported a back spasm but he was perfectly fine as claimed by a physio in the NCA, and once it was out in the public, all hell broke loose. However, Pandit, who feels Iyer will eventually claw his way back into Team India’s scheme of things, added a new twist to the saga that Iyer indeed was injured but he managed to recover in time.
“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,” he told Mid-Day.
“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.”
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Pandit, who worked with Iyer closely last year has backed the India batter to come back strongly despite the setback. Pandit is sure that given the quality Iyer possesses, he deserves a place in India’s one of the top brackets – Shreyas belonged to the INR 3 crore bracket B. Pandit guarantees that this blow will only make Iyer fiercely dedicated and highly motivated to come back stronger.
“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,” he said.
