Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra added that the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) was right in denying Shreyas Iyer a central contract if he went for a Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) camp when he was asked to play in the Ranji Trophy as well. However, the BCCI recently released the list of centrally contracted players for the 2023-24 season where Shreyas and Ishan Kishan, were not included.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra said: “According to an ESPNcricinfo article, Shreyas Iyer said after the Vizag match that he has slight pain in his back. The NCA gave a report that he does not have any fresh injury and that they think he is ready to play. He was asked to play as the Ranji Trophy was on. There Shreyas Iyer chose not to play. However, in the same article it’s written that he went for the pre-season camp with KKR. Now that is an issue. If that has happened, if you are doing KKR’s pre-season camp, there will be a problem.”

Aakash Chopra also added that Shreyas Iyer was asked to play first-class cricket as he hadn’t scored well in the ongoing Test series between India and England. And, the veteran also opined that Ishan Kishan opted not to play the final few Ranji Trophy league games for Jharkhand even when he was asked to do so as well.

“Shreyas Iyer’s team is playing the semi-final. So he is available. However, since Ishan Kishan’s Jharkhand wasn’t in a position to qualify and some games were left, he was asked to play. He said that he doesn’t want to play. At the same time, he was already practicing with his IPL captain Hardik Pandya in Baroda but wasn’t playing Ranji Trophy matches. So that hasn’t gone down well. Instead of practicing, he could have played a match if his break was over,” Aakash Chopra concluded.