Ishan Kishan Continues To Ignore BCCI’s Directive, Puts India Career At Stake
Jamshedpur: Ishan Kishan continued to ignore BCCI’s directives once again as the India wicketkeeper decided to skip Jharkhand’s Ranji Trophy match against Rajasthan in Elite Group A at the Keenan Stadium in Jamshedpur, a move that won’t go well with the Indian team management. Kishan’s absence from cricket since the Test series against South Africa has been a matter of discussion and even forced the BCCI to bring a mandate for all players (not a part of Indian team) to play domestic cricket for their respective state teams and not just wait for the Indian Premier League to commence.
Kishan, who was a part of the Indian squad for the ODI World Cup 2023, withdrew himself from the two-match Test series against South Africa citing mental fatigue. At a time when most of his peers are focusing on domestic cricket to stage an India comeback including veterans Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara, Kishan chose to stay away from cricket and even appeared on popular television quiz show with Amitabh Bachchan. He was even caught training with his Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya in Baroda.
With no Kishan in the mix, Kumar Kushagra continued doing wicket-keeping duties for Jharkhand. Jharkhand, who have only one win and 10 points from six matches so far, are playing Rajasthan at home in their final round.
Besides Kishan, two more players – Shreyas Iyer and Deepak Chahar – were specifically told to play first-class cricket. However, the duo are missing too. Iyer is having issues with his lower back and groin. There is a general consensus that a strict policy needs to be adhered to so that a group of young players don’t make “playing IPL to IPL” a habit.
Earlier, after India’s win over England in the second Test match in Visakhapatnam, head coach Rahul Dravid opened up on the Ishan Kishan saga and made it clear that the 25-year-old has to play domestic cricket to return to the national fold.
“There is way back for anyone and everyone. I don’t want to go on labouring about the Ishan Kishan point. Have tried to explain this as best as I can, the point was he had requested a break, we were happy to give him the break,” Dravid told reporters.
“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, it is not that we have not been in touch. He has not yet started playing right so at the moment it is not something we can consider.
“Because you know he maybe he is not ready. He decides when he wants to be ready. We have got options with Rishabh injured and stuff. I am sure the selectors will weight all options,” he had further stated.