By BCCI Announces New Central Contracts; Iyer and Kishan Miss Out
The BCCI recently unveiled its list of centrally contracted players for the upcoming season, with a few notable exclusions. Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan, who were part of the previous season’s contracts, have been left out this time. The board clarified that both players were not considered for this round of recommendations.
On the other hand, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, and Mohammed Siraj have been promoted to the Grade A category, reflecting their consistent performances. Rishabh Pant, who missed a significant part of the previous season due to injury, has been placed in Grade B.
The top-tier Grade A+ category features the usual suspects – Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, and Ravindra Jadeja. In Grade A, alongside Pant, there are Surya Kumar Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
The Grade C category sees a significant increase in the number of players, with 10 new faces included. This includes promising talents like Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shivam Dube, and Ravi Bishnoi, among others. Some notable omissions from this grade are Umesh Yadav, Shikhar Dhawan, and Yuzvendra Chahal.
Additionally, the selection committee has introduced a new category – Fast Bowling contracts, recognizing the importance of quality fast bowlers in the squad. This category includes Akash Deep, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Umran Malik, Yash Dayal, and Vidwath Kaverappa.
The contracts will be applicable from October 1, 2023, to September 30, 2024, and players who meet the minimum criteria for Test, ODI, or T20I matches during this period will be eligible for the respective grades.
List of contracted players for 2023-24:
Grade A+: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja.
Grade A: R Ashwin, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya.
Grade B: Surya Kumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Grade C: Rinku Singh, Tilak Verma, Ruturaj Gaekwad, Shardul Thakur, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, Jitesh Sharma, Washington Sundar, Mukesh Kumar, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, KS Bharat, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan and Rajat Patidar.
Fast Bowling contracts: Akash Deep, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Umran Malik, Yash Dayal and Vidwath Kaverappa.
