Delhi's senior wicketkeeper-batter Anuj Rawat on Monday joined his new Indian Premier League team Gujarat Titans' training session in Surat despite the state team's ongoing camp at the Arun Jaitley Stadium ahead of its next round Ranji Trophy match against Saurashtra at Rajkot.
At a time when the BCCI brass is adamant that players should give precedence to red-ball cricket during the season, Rawat attending an IPL camp only a week before the commencement of red-ball season is a clear indication of where his priorities lie.
"Gujarat Titans have commenced their preparations for the IPL 2025 with a training camp in Surat. Players like Anuj Rawat, Ishant Sharma, Jayant Yadav, Kumar Kushagra, Mahipal Lomror and Arshad Khan have joined the team in the camp along with the coaches and support staff," Gujarat Titans said in a statement.
According to PTI, veteran bowler Ishant Sharma has already told DDCA that he won't play red-ball cricket anymore now that he is no longer in contention for a national comeback.
When DDCA secretary Ashok Sharma, who is also the convenor of the senior state team selection committee, was asked if the player in question had sought permission to join his IPL team's pre-season conditioning camp, he replied in negative.
"I have no knowledge that Anuj has skipped the ongoing Ranji Trophy camp to attend the IPL team's camp. Ideally, he needs to take permission from the state association. We have two Ranji games left and the camp is on at the Kotla. I don't know who gave him the permission to skip the Ranji Trophy camp," Sharma told PTI.
"Ishant's case is different as he doesn't need DDCA's permission since he doesn't play Ranji Trophy."
It is learnt that normally, if an IPL pre-season conditioning camp coincides with a state team camp, one normally takes permission from either the president or the secretary before attending an IPL net session.
"We have received a few official e-mail requests from certain players asking for permission to join their respective IPL camps but I can confirm that we have received no written request from Anuj Rawat. In that case, he shouldn't have joined the IPL camp," a senior DDCA official, who looks after cricket operations, said on condition of anonymity.
Last year, KKR's IPL-winning captain Shreyas Iyer, who will lead Punjab Kings this season, lost his central contract along with Ishan Kishan, for giving more importance to IPL than domestic cricket.
Both learnt from their mistake and since then have played for Mumbai and Jharkhand respectively across all formats.
The left-handed Rawat, who is a student of Rajkumar Sharma, famous for being Virat Kohli's childhood coach, has played three red-ball games this season with only 97 runs in four innings with a highest score of 52.
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