"You can't be just going and practicing with your franchise"- Brad Hogg on Shreyas Iyer's central contract snub
Former Australian cricketer Brad Hogg believes Shreyas Iyer should have been available for his state team Mumbai straightaway after being dropped from the Indian team in the ongoing Test series against England.
Iyer was excluded from the latest round of BCCI's central contracts and many believed the major reason behind it was his unavailability for Mumbai's Ranji Trophy quarterfinal despite reportedly being fit.
In a video on his YouTube channel, here's what Brad Hogg had to say about international players giving importance to domestic cricket.
"If you have time to play domestic cricket, you have to do that. For Iyer, you can't be just going and practicing with your franchise as I have heard rumours that that has happened. You got to go back to the state team. If you're not playing international cricket, you have to play state cricket unless you're Virat Kohli who has played so much cricket around the year and really needs a break to rejuvenate."
Alongside Shreyas Iyer, even Ishan Kishan didn't get the central contract. The southpaw hasn't featured for Jharkhand ever since he asked for a break. Hogg believes playing domestic cricket will only help the batters get better and sustain their form.
Brad Hogg on Pat Cummins' announcement as SRH captain
The SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) appointing Pat Cummins as their captain has raised quite a few eyebrows. While Brad Hogg believes Cummins might have to adapt to the SRH team environment, he has no doubt that the Australian pacer will be tactically well-prepared.
On this, Hogg stated:
"The only thing about Pat Cummins coming and captaining the (SRH) team is that he hasn't been able to be around the group for long. He has got to learn the franchise and I think it will be a transition period there. But I feel Cummins is strong and mature enough to counteract that. I think that's going to be a good acquisition. He will do a lot of study before he goes out there and what will be the best combination."
Aiden Markram has won both editions of the SA20 league with the Sunrisers Eastern Cape. It will be interesting to see what role the former SRH captain will have in the team under Cummins.