A day after Hardik Pandya returned to competitive cricket, his Mumbai Indians teammate Ishan Kishan turned out for RBI in the DY Patil T20 Cup in Navi Mumbai on Tuesday.
Kishan hasn’t featured in a match since returning from the South Africa tour in December when he asked the team management to release him from the Test squad citing personal reasons.
His absence from the Ranji Trophy has raised eyebrows in the face of BCCI’s diktat to contracted players to prioritise domestic cricket and not just concentrate on the IPL. He had been training in Baroda with Pandya at the Kiran More Academy.
Kishan, along with Shreyas Iyer, faces the BCCI’s wrath and could be dropped from the central contracts.
Kishan never communicated with his home association, Jharkhand, and didn’t
play any of the matches this season.
Iyer on Tuesday confirmed his participation in the Ranji Trophy semi-final against Tamil Nadu from Saturday. He didn’t play their quarter final against Baroda citing back pain though the BCCI medical team had ruled him fit.
The middle-order Mumbai batter had featured in a Ranji Trophy match ahead of the opening Test against England as part of preparations following instructions from the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee. He was dropped from the squad for the last three Tests.
Kishan kept wickets on Tuesday and affected a stumping besides opening the innings and scoring 19 off 12 deliveries, including two boundaries and a six. RBI lost to Route Mobile by 89 runs.
Pandya, who claimed 2 for 22 from his three overs on Monday, will head back to
the NCA next month for a
final assessment before joining the Mumbai Indians ahead of IPL 2024.
Suryakumar Yadav, who is still recovering from surgery for sports hernia in January, is in a race against time to regain fitness for the start of the IPL.
