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The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on February 28 (Wednesday) announced the list of players who got annual central contracts. Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer who did not feature in Ranji Trophy 2023-24 have been dropped from the list.
Here is the full list of players who have been given annual central contracts -
Grade A+
Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja.
Grade A
R Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya.
Grade B
Suryakumar 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.
Meanwhile, the selection Committee has recommended Fast Bowling contracts for Akash Deep, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Umran Malik, Yash Dayal, and Vidwath Kaverappa.
Big players missing from the list
Other notable absentees from the list are Cheteshwar Pujara, Shikhar Dhawan, Yuzvendra Chahal, Umesh Yadav, Deepak Chahar, and Deepak Hooda. Pujara, Yadav, and Dhawan have fallen out of favour as the selection committee wants to invest in young talent.
Iyer, Kishan punished
After BCCI secretary Jay Shah made it clear that players need to prioritise domestic cricket over the IPL, Kishan, and Iyer did not join their respective Ranji Trophy sides. As a result, Kishan who was in Grade C and Iyer who was in Grade B did not find a place on the list. Chahar is another player on the list who prioritised IPL and skipped Ranji Trophy matches.
Promotion and demotions
Ashwin and Axar Patel have been moved from Grade A to Grade B. Meanwhile, Rishabh Pant who is currently recovering from injuries suffered in a horrific car accident ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 has been included in Grade B. In his absence, Rahul has been promoted to Grade A. Shubman Gill and Mohammed Siraj are two other players who moved from Group B to Group A.
Big boost for newcomers
Players who have played three Tests, eight ODIs or 10 T20Is within the specified period (October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024) will be added to Grade C on pro-rata basis. To clarify, the board said that Dhruv Jurel and Sarfaraz Khan will fall under this category if they play the Dharamsala Test against England which will be their third appearance in the longest format of the game.
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