After losing their spot in Indian Test batting lineup, veteran batters Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane have been dealt with another blow. Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has dropped the out-of-favour Test duo from Grade A to Grade B. They will now get Rs 3 crore per annum instead of Rs 5 crore.
Rohit, Kohli & Bumrah remain in A+ category
India's all-format skipper Rohit Sharma, former skipper Virat Kohli and pace-bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah are the three players in A+ category. Players in this category get paid Rs 7 crore per annum.
Demotion for Pandya, Dhawan too
On the other hand, an injured Hardik Pandya has been dropped from A category to C category. Pandya has not played an international game since T20 World Cup 2021. Similarly, opener Shikhar Dhawan has been demoted from A category to C as well. Players in C category will get paid Rs 1 crore.
Out-of-favour Wriddhiman Saha has been dropped from B category to C category. Saha was recently dropped from India’s Test side for the upcoming home Test series against Sri Lanka.
Pacer Navdeep Saini and chinaman Kuldeep Yadav have been excluded from the list. Earlier, they were in C category. Also, compared to last year, there are only five players in A category. Wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan and Harshal Patel are not in the list either.
Full list of players in each category -
A+ category - Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah
A category - Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami, Rishabh Pant
B category - Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Shreyas Iyer, Mohammed Siraj, Ishant Sharma
C category - Shikhar Dhawan, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar, Deepak Chahar, Shubman Gill, Hanuma Vihari, Yuzvendra Chahal, Suryakumar Yadav, Wriddhiman Saha, Mayank Agarwal
