The 30-year-old batsman has also withdrawn from India ‘A’s series against Australia ‘A’.
Shreyas Iyer was playing for India ‘A’ as part of his bid to return to the Test team. Suddenly, it emerged that he no longer wants to play red-ball cricket for now! According to cricket website ESPNcricinfo, the 30-year-old batsman has emailed the Indian board asking for a break from long-format cricket.
Shreyas cited a back injury as the reason for his decision. He explained that because of this issue, playing or staying on the field for two consecutive days has become difficult for him.
On Australia ‘A’s current tour of India, Shreyas captained India ‘A’ in the first unofficial Test. He was also supposed to lead the side in the second match. However, he is not playing the game that started in Lucknow on Tuesday. Dhruv Jurel has taken over the captaincy.
He was also expected to play for Rest of India in the upcoming Irani Trophy match against Ranji champions Vidarbha, but now he won’t be appearing in that match either.
There has already been plenty of discussion and criticism about Shreyas not being selected for India’s current Asia Cup T20 squad. Earlier, his omission from the Test squad for the England tour also sparked debate. The last time he played Test cricket was in February last year against England.
Playing for India ‘A’ was part of his plan to return to the Test side. In the only innings of the first match, he was dismissed for just 8 runs. Earlier this month, in the Duleep Trophy semi-final for West Zone, he scored 25 and 12 runs in two innings. Those were his first competitive games since the IPL ended in June.
The exact nature of Shreyas’s latest back injury is unknown. However, he first suffered the problem in December 2022, and it flared up again during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in March 2023. This forced him to undergo surgery, ruling him out of that year’s IPL. He returned in the Asia Cup later that year and performed brilliantly in India’s run to the 2023 ODI World Cup final.
He remains an important part of India’s ODI squad, and during the last Champions Trophy campaign, he was the team’s highest run-scorer. In the IPL, he is the second-most expensive player, and under his leadership, Punjab Kings finished as runners-up in the last edition.
