Sunil Gavaskar opens up on Shreyas Iyer’s central contract saga

Sunil Gavaskar. (Photo source: X(Twitter)

Star Indian batter Shreyas Iyer has caught many headlines in recent weeks. The 29-year-old was snubbed from getting a central contract from the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) alongside Ishan Kishan due to opting out of playing in the Ranji Trophy. 

The same decision confused former Indian batter Sunil Gavaskar. With the contract snubbing, several reports claimed that Iyer informed the team that he was not fit to play in the Ranji quarter-final, but NCA trainers claimed that the batter was fully fit. 

Speaking of the same, Sunil Gavaskar opined that the threshold of pain is a very subjective thing and varies from player to player, and no trainer can determine how much pain a player is in. 

“He did miss the quarter-finals, but that was also the time he informed the team management of his inability to play the third Test match due to some pain in his back if he batted for some length of time,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Mid Day.

“However, the trainers at the NCA certified that his markers were clean and they found him fit to play. That seemed to have gone against Iyer. Threshold of pain is an individual thing, and no trainer can judge that,” he added. 

Nobody still knows why Kishan has not turned up for Jharkhand: Gavaskar

Furthermore, Gavaskar also talked of while Ishan Kishan stated no reasons for his absence from the Ranji Trophy, Iyer did compete for Mumbai in the tournament before the ongoing Test series between India and England began. 

“Nobody still knows why Kishan has not turned up for Jharkhand in the Ranji Trophy, while at the time of writing this column, Iyer was in the Mumbai team to play the semi-finals of the Ranji Trophy. Iyer had also played in the Ranji Trophy game as asked by the Indian team management just before this Test series started, so it’s not as if he has refused to play the Ranji Trophy at all,” Gavaskar wrote.

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