BCCI secretary Jay Shah has revealed who decided to drop Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer from the list of central contracts this year.

Shreyas Iyer suffered a recurrence of his back issue following the first two Tests against England. He was not selected for the following three Tests. Iyer was still on the receiving end after it was revealed that he had visited a Kolkata Knight Riders camp in Mumbai while his domestic team was busy playing a Ranji Trophy match.

While Iyer played for Mumbai in the knockout stages, he was not selected for the BCCI central contracts.

Ishan Kishan, on the other hand, had taken a mental health break after returning from his tour of South Africa. He made no touch with the BCCI or his home state board, despite the India national management pushing him to play the Ranji Trophy before the England Test series for selection.

He stayed unavailable until the DY Patil T20 Cup, where he returned before of the IPL 2024. This meant that both players were removed from the list of BCCI centrally contracted players.

“Nobody is indispensable,” Jay Shah reveals Ajit Agarkar took the decision to drop Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer from central contracts

The decision to remove Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer from the list of core contract players was decided solely by Ajit Agarkar, the chairman of selectors, according to BCCI secretary Jay Shah, who stated that “nobody is indispensable”.

Kishan and Iyer were barred from domestic cricket after failing to appear for BCCI-mandated matches.

“You can check the constitution. I am just a convener (of the selection meeting). That decision lies with Ajit Agarkar, even when these two players (Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer) who did not play domestic (cricket), the decision to drop them (from the central contracts list) was only his.

“My role is just to implement. And we have got new players (in place), like Sanju (Samson). Nobody is indispensable”,” Jay Shah told reporters at the BCCI head office here on Thursday.

Shah also revealed details of his conversation with Kishan, which occurred after the Mumbai Indians’ game against the Gujarat Titans.