Why did BCCI grant central contract to Hardik Pandya but dropped Ishan Kishan-Shreyas Iyer

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Indian Express has stated that Pandya committed to play for Baroda in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20s and Vijay Hazare Trophy when he is not involved with the national team. Citing a senior BCCI official, the IE also reported that Pandya has affirmed his intention to maintain his partnership with Baroda in domestic tournaments whenever he is not on national team duty. “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 said as quoted by Indian Express. Batter Iyer who represents Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy was not part of the quarterfinal which was held on 23 February due to "back spasms" but the National Cricket Academy (NCA) said that he has no 'fresh injuries', as reported by Indian Express. On the other hand, Wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan also skipped Ranji Trophy matches recently. Though it was expected that Kishan would play domestic cricket during his time away from the national team, the wicketkeeper-batter was absent from his state team Jharkhand's Ranji Trophy matches.

India's head coach Rahul Dravid too mentioned that he needed to play some form of cricket to regain his place in the Indian squad. But he did make a return to competitive cricket on Tuesday at the DY Patil T20 Cup. Last year, Kishan was in the Indian squad for the South Africa Test series but had pulled out due to "personal reasons".