Shreyas Iyer to skip Mumbai's Ranji Trophy quarter-final despite Jay Shah's warning because...

According to the latest report in TOI, the star India National Cricket Team middle-order batsman Shreyas Iyer is all set to miss the Ranji Trophy 2024 quarter-final match of Team Mumbai despite the warning of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Jay Shah because of his back issues.

Recently, Jay Shah issued a message to the centrally-contracted India players to participate in domestic cricket to make themselves available for the selection for Team India. He also fired a strict warning to the players, stating that the non-participation in domestic cricket would lead to “severe implications”.

This move by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) came after seeing the trend of the players giving priority to the Indian Premier League (IPL) over domestic cricket. The likes of Ishan Kishan, Deepak Chahar, and Krunal Pandya have reportedly not been taking part in domestic cricket and have already started the preparation for the cash-rich league.

Talking about Shreyas Iyer, he was recently seen in action during the first two Tests of the home series against the England National Cricket Team. He failed to score significant runs in the matches, registering 35 and 13 in Hyderabad, and 27 and 29 in Visakhapatnam.

Following his poor performance in the first two matches, he was left out of the team for the remainder of the series.

There were conflicting reports on Iyer’s exclusion from the team with one side reporting that his non-selection was due to his poor form while the other side claimed that he was left out of the team because of his back issues. In Iyer’s absence, Sarfaraz Khan was able to make it to India’s playing XI in the Rajkot Test and he played spectacular knocks, registering half-centuries in both innings.

He has told Mumbai’s team management that he is unfit – Mumbai Cricket Association source on Shreyas Iyer

As per a Mumbai Cricket Association source, Shreyas Iyer is again facing back issues and he is unfit. Due to his back problems, Shreyas Iyer is also set to miss Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy quarter-final match against Baroda at the Mumbai Cricket Association’s BKC ground from February 23.

He was not picked by the selectors in the squad for the upcoming match and is likely to remain on the sidelines for a while.

“He has told Mumbai’s team management that he is unfit,” said a source in the Mumbai Cricket Association, as quoted by TOI. 

“He had told the Indian team management and the selectors that he got a backache after batting for 30-40 minutes. He needs some to recover from it,” a source in the BCCI told TOI.

Squad: Ajinkya Rahane (Captain), Prithvi Shaw, Bhupen Lalwani, Amogh Bhatkal, Musheer Khan, Suryansh Shedge, Prasad Pawar (WK), Hardik Tamore (WK), Shardul Thakur, Shams Mulani, Tanush Kotian, Aditya Dhumal, Tushar Deshpande, Mohit Awasthi, Dhawal Kulkarni, Roystan Dias.

Talking about the ongoing five-match Test series between the India National Cricket Team and the England National Cricket Team, Rohit Sharma & Co. are leading by 2-1 after winning the previous two matches. Next, the teams will be heading to Ranchi for the fourth Test which will be played from February 23 at the JSCA International Stadium Complex.