Following the BCCI's decision to remove Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer off the yearly retainers list for the 2023–24 season, Saha made his remark.
It is believed by veteran Indian wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha that there is no way to "forcefully" stop a sportsman from playing domestic cricket. The announcement followed the BCCI's decision to remove Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer off the yearly retainers list for the 2023–24 season.
Ishan took a hiatus from cricket during the South Africa tour, allegedly because he was mentally exhausted. However, he returned to the game earlier this week in the DY Patil T20 competition. However, after being left off of the Indian Test team during the home series against England, there was some uncertainty over Iyer's fitness level. Nevertheless, the middle-order batsman has declared himself fit to play in the Ranji Trophy semifinal, which gets underway on Saturday.
The BCCI has advised that all sportsmen put priority to playing domestic cricket during times when they are not representing the national side. That remark, however, summed up the board's unprecedented action.
Saha stated that first-class cricket is the foundation and that every player should value it enough to succeed, but he had no judgment on the decisions made by Ishan and Iyer to forego domestic cricket during their time away from the Indian squad.
Both the BCCI and the individual players in question made that decision. With force, he said, there's nothing you can do.
Prior to the selection committee choosing Ishan and KS Bharat for the wicketkeeping position, Saha's last game for India was in December 2021. The seasoned athlete is still playing cricket for Tripura in the national league, nevertheless.
I play whenever I'm well; I've participated in office and club matches as well. A match is always treated as such by me. For me, all matches are equal. He went on to say that it would be great for Indian cricket and that every player would only succeed in their careers if they had that mindset. In my opinion, domestic cricket holds constant significance, as seen by Sarfaraz Khan's impressive run totals over the past four to five years. He has undoubtedly delivered.
Saha, meanwhile, praised Dhruv Jurel's performance in India's five-wicket victory in the Ranchi Test match. The young player helped India win the five-match series against England by scoring an incredible 90 runs in the first innings and then patiently scoring 39 runs without giving up in the second innings.
Even in the highlights of Test matches, I have never seen Jurel play domestic cricket. He said, though, that his batting is superb and that the team won the most recent Test.
