BCCI unhappy with Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer for skipping Ranji Trophy despite being fit, likely to take strict action

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is not happy with the attitude of certain established players towards red-ball cricket, especially towards the Ranji Trophy. Recently, head coach Rahul Dravid announced that Ishan Kishan needs to play some cricket to be reconsidered for the national side.

Still, the wicketkeeper-batter did not contact his state team Jharkhand for appearing in Ranji Trophy games. He is currently practicing at the Kiran More Cricket Academy in Baroda for the IPL 2024 with the Pandya brothers.

The players not on national duty may be asked by the BCCI to play for their state teams if they are fit. With the IPL coming up, many players have already started to get into that mode without considering first-class cricket and playing some red ball in the Ranji Trophy.

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India is currently facing England in a five-match Test series and BCCI released Avesh Khan in the first Test to play in the Ranji Trophy after it was confirmed that he will not be a part of the Playing XI.

Notable Players who are not a part of the Indian team currently like Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Prithvi Shaw and Umesh Yadav are playing in the Ranji Trophy whereas some players have already started to train for the IPL without giving much attention to Ranji Trophy.

The BCCI is going to communicate with the players about this issue and will be asked to play for their state team if they are not on national duty with only those players who are injured or rehabilitating at the NCA to be exempted.

“In the next few days, all the players will be communicated by the BCCI to play for their state team in the Ranji Trophy, as long as they are not on national duty, with only those who are unfit and recovering at the NCA being granted an exemption. The Board isn’t too happy with certain players already in IPL  mode from January,” a source said.

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The Ranji Trophy Was Started in 1934

Ranji Trophy is India’s premier first-class competition which was started way back in 1934 as ‘The Cricket Championship of India’ but was renamed as Ranji Trophy in 1935 after K.S. Ranjitsinhji who was the first Indian to play international cricket.

He played 15 Test matches for England between 1896 and 1902 and was one of the best batsmen of his era. Currently, the competition consists of 38 teams with all 28 states and four out of eight Union Territories having at least one representation.

The Ranji Trophy is a prestigious championship and should be taken seriously by some established players as it helps them to make a comeback in the national team along with providing opportunities to the youngsters and emerging players.

Mumbai is the most successful team in the tournament’s history with 41 titles but they have not won a title in the last eight years with the last win coming in 2016. Saurashtra is the defending champion and has won two titles in the competition and has ended up being the runners-up three times.

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