Ishant, Rahane and more: Complete list of 7 players who were stripped of BCCI Annual Player Contract

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Sunday (March 26) announced the Annual Player Contracts for the country's senior men's team for the period between October 2022 to September 2023. A total of 26 cricketers have been included in Annual Player Contracts under four categories (A+, A, B and C) while a total of seven cricketers lost their contracts.

Let's take a closer look at the seven players who were part of the BCCI Annual Players Contract for last season but were stripped of their contract for the new season.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar: The veteran right-arm seamer seems to have lost his place in the Indian set-up and was also stripped of the contract.

Ajinkya Rahane: The veteran right-handed batter lost his place in the Indian Test set-up and it is now out of the Central Contract as well.

Mayank Agarwal: Stylish right-handed opening batter has fallen off the radar and is currently not in the scheme of things.

Ishant Sharma: The veteran right-arm pacer, who was an integral part of India's red-ball set-up not long ago, has now fallen behind in the pecking order.

Hanuma Vihari: The right-handed batter and Test specialist, Vihari is not in the scheme of things.

Wriddhiman Saha: Veteran wicketkeeper-batter lost his place in the Indian Test set-up with the emergence of Ishan Kishan and KS Bharat.

Deepak Chahar: Continued absence due to injuries has forced the right-arm seamer out of the scheme of things.

Meanwhile, stylish all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja was awarded for his consistent performance with the bat in both red-ball and white-ball cricket. The 34-year-old was promoted to the A+ category where he joined captain Rohit Sharma, former skipper Virat Kohli and premier pacer Jasprit Bumrah. Only four cricketers have been placed in the A+ category which sees players earning Rs 7 crore annually.

Players in the A+ category will earn Rs 7 crore, players in the A category will pocket a sum of Rs 5 crore, players in the B category will earn Rs 3 crore while players in the C category will earn Rs 1 crore.

Four players are placed under the A+ category, five players under the A category, six players under the B category and 11 players under the C category.

A+ - Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah

A - Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Axar Patel, Rishabh Pant

B - Cheteshwar Pujara, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Shubman Gill, Mohammed Siraj

C - Umesh Yadav, Shikhar Dhawan, Shardul Thakur, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, KS Bharat