Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly expressed surprise at Ishan Kishan’s decision not to play Ranji Trophy this season after being dropped from the BCCI’s central contract. BCCI recently announced the central contract, in which big players like Kishan and Shreyas Iyer were not included. Kishan had declared himself unavailable for domestic cricket after the South Africa Test series.

Kishan had taken a break from domestic and international cricket due to mental fatigue. In an interview with RevSports, when Ganguly was asked about Kishan not playing Ranji Trophy, he replied. Ganguly said, “You should play first class cricket. Once you become a contracted player, you are expected to play in premier tournaments. Shreyas Iyer is going to play in the semi-finals for Mumbai in a few days. Yes, they are young people and Ishaan has surprised me.

He was a part of the Indian team in all formats. Such a big contract in IPL. I don’t know why they did this. You should play especially when you are talented like Ishan Kishan. When you are playing for India in all formats, you must play. I was surprised by his decision not to play.” Furthermore, Ganguly also supported BCCI’s decision to drop both Shreyas and Ishan from the central contracts.

BCCI’s decision regarding Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer is absolutely right – Sourav Ganguly

He further said, “I think BCCI wants him to play first class cricket. I am surprised that Shreyas Iyer has not played Ranji Trophy. This is a major tournament and you should play. So, it is BCCI’s decision and they have done the right thing. “Every contracted cricketer should play first-class cricket because that is the foundation of cricket in this country.”

The BCCI’s decision to exclude players like Kishan and Iyer from central contracts can be seen as a measure to emphasize the importance of first-class cricket. While Iyer is playing the Ranji Trophy semi-final match for Mumbai, Kishan was also seen playing the match with Hardik Pandya in the DY Patil T-20 Cup 2024.