The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Team India all-rounder Hardik Pandya had been slammed on social media after the previous introduced the listing of cricketers who were handed central contracts for the 2023-24 season. Amid swirling hypothesis over the destiny of wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan and injury-prone top-order participant Shreyas Iyer, the BCCI confirmed that the duo was not included within the cricket physique’s annual contracts.

Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer created quite a lot of buzz in latest weeks, largely for the wrong causes, after the 2 gamers determined in opposition to the group administration and the BCCI’s choice to play home cricket when they don’t seem to be employed with the nationwide facet.

However, the 2 batters repeatedly ignored head coach Rahul Dravid and captain Rohit Sharma’s dictate, lacking a string of Ranji Trophy video games, irking the nationwide choice committee led by former India quick bowler Ajit Agarkar.

In explicit, Rohit Sharma was fairly categorical concerning the state of affairs, underlining that younger cricketers should perceive the essence of home cricket and will comply with the recommendation given to them by the nationwide selectors and assume tank.

He went on to warn them, emphasizing that solely gamers who had been keen to work arduous can be picked to signify India in worldwide matches. But gamers not keen to take action wouldn’t be thought of for choice.

In this context, the BCCI selected to not provide contracts to each Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan.

“Please note that Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were not considered for the annual contracts in this round of recommendations,” a press release from the Indian Cricket Board learn.

The BCCI’s assertion, nonetheless, did not go effectively with the supporters of Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan.

Their admirers criticized the board over its stand on Hardik Pandya, who now not performs red-ball home cricket. Similarly, Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan have missed four-day fixtures of the Ranji Trophy.

But not like Hardik Pandya, who was included within the listing of centrally-contracted gamers, Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan missed out.

This led the followers to explain Hardik Pandya as “selfish”.

Shreyas iyer enjoying all codecs however not a Central contract why ?
And Hardik Pandya not a enjoying all codecs and never match indian group however choose for Central contract why ?

Hardik Pandya is a egocentric cricketer who will get injured whereas enjoying for the Indian group and is out there to… pic.twitter.com/NJ0t0ESLuq

— Sitaram Meghwanshi (@sr_panchota) February 29, 2024

Total matches performed in 2023 :

• Shreyas Iyer – 26 match, 986 runs.
• Hardik Pandya – 23 match, 571 runs.

But Iyer is faraway from BCCI’S annual contract and Pandya obtained the A contract. pic.twitter.com/xFZDPjWONE

— 𝐇𝐲𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐧 𝕏 (@ImHydro45) March 1, 2024

Shreyas iyer was the spine of india’s center order in world cup. But BCCI excluded him from the annual contract.

On the opposite facet, hardik pandya solely performs on the large moments like IPL, world cup and he needs captaincy in any format which he performs.pic.twitter.com/UKd24evCy0

— Haroon Mustafa (@CRICFOOTHAROON) February 28, 2024

Life ho to Hardik Pandya jaisi Varna na ho .
BCCI and Ambani dono meharban..
All codecs participant Shreyas Iyer has no central contract however Injury susceptible Hardik has A. pic.twitter.com/ox8xU8FAw4

— Satya Prakash (@Satya_Prakash08) February 28, 2024

Nonetheless, a BCCI official and former India opener, Aakash Chopra, defined that Hardik Pandya’s case was completely different from that of Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer’s.

“We have had discussions with Pandya, who has been told to play domestic white-ball tournaments when he is available. At this stage, according to the assessment of the BCCI’s medical team, he is not in a position to bowl in red-ball tournaments. So playing Ranji Trophy is out of the equation for Pandya. But he has to play other white-ball tournaments if there are no India commitments. If not, he will miss out on a contract,” a BCCI official advised an Indian media outlet.

“Hardik Pandya’s case is very simple. He is not playing red-ball cricket. That ambition or aspiration does not exist anymore. He has not said that as such, but the truth is that he is not available at all for any Test series. So if you are not at all auditioning for Tests, no one will ask you to play first-class cricket. Why would you play four-day games when you don’t have that much strength in your body to bowl so many overs and have injury problems? So why should he play (first-class cricket),” Aakash Chopra mentioned on his YouTube channel.

“If he stops for India despite being fit. If he is on break and doesn’t want to play Syed Mushtaq Ali or Vijay Hazare Trophy for promotion or a video shoot or other such works. Then you can say he is wrong. But currently he is not. And why would you punish him if he has not made a mistake?” he elaborated.

Hardik Pandya has not featured within the Indian Cricket Team since final 12 months’s ODI World Cup earlier than getting injured in between the celebrated event.

He not too long ago returned to aggressive cricket, taking part within the DY Patil T20 event. The all-rounder will proceed to construct momentum forward of the beginning of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the place he’ll lead former champions Mumbai Indians within the competitors later this month.

BCCI’s Central Contracts for 2023/24

Grade A+ (4 Cricketers)

Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja.

Grade A (6 Cricketers)

R Ashwin, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya.

Grade B (5 Cricketers)

Surya Kumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Yashasvi Jaiswal.

Grade C (15 Cricketers)

Rinku Singh, Tilak Verma, Ruturaj Gaekwad, Shardul Thakur, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, Jitesh Sharma, Washington Sundar, Mukesh Kumar, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, KS Bharat, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan and Rajat Patidar.