"No absolutely not"- Rahul Dravid rubbishes reports of India dropping Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer due to disciplinary reasons
Indian head coach Rahul Dravid made an important revelation of the reasons for the likes of Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer not being named in the T20I squad for the three-match series against Afghanistan.
Ishan Kishan had made himself unavailable for the Test series against South Africa citing mental fatigue. Dravid claimed that the southpaw hasn't made himself available yet, discarding reports of Ishan being dropped due to disciplinary measures.
Speaking to reporters on the eve of the first T20I in Mohali, here's what Rahul Dravid had to say about the team management's stance on Ishan Kishan:
"No absolutely not (disciplinary issue). Ishan Kishan was not available for selection. Ishan requested for a break, which we agreed in South Africa. We supported it. He has not yet made himself available. I don't think he has made himself available as yet. When he is available, he will play domestic cricket and make himself available for selection."
Rahul Dravid cited 'lot of batters' as reason for Shreyas Iyer missing out
Shreyas Iyer was named the vice-captain for India's final two T20Is against Australia. However, he didn't play a single T20I in South Africa and Rahul Dravid shed light on that fact to prove just the competition among pure batters in the Indian T20I setup.
He feels Shreyas was just unfortunate to miss out and claimed there was not disciplinary reason behind it:
"Certainly, in Shreyas Iyer's case, there is absolutely no disciplinary reason for his non-inclusion. It's just that he missed out. There were a lot of battes in the team", Dravid said. "Shreyas missed out, he didn't play the T20Is in South Africa, if you noticed. They are a lot of batters and it's not easy to fit everyone. So, absolutely, there is no disciplinary reasons at all. At least I didn't discuss such things with the selectors."
Rahul Dravid also announced that Virat Kohli was unavailable for selection for the first T20I due to personal reasons.