The future remains uncertain for Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan, who were axed from the BCCI contract list that was released recently. "Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were not considered for the annual contracts in this round of recommendations," a statement from BCCI said.
Though there was no further explanation of their absence, despite the duo being in the scheme of things with the Indian cricket team for the last one year, one line in the BCCI press release gave enough hint about the cause of their contract termination. "The BCCI has recommended that all athletes give precedence to participating in domestic cricket during periods when they are not representing the national team," the BCCI press release .
Herein may lie a big hint. After Ishan Kishan took a break from the national duties, midway into India's Tour of South Africa in January, Indian cricket team coach Rahul Dravid mentioned he needs to play domestic cricket or any other form of cricket to make a comeback.
Though the Ranji Trophy was going on, Ishan Kishan missed his state team Jharkhand's matches. He even started training with his IPL captain Hardik Pandya.