The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced the annual contract list of players for the Men’s team, for the period between October 2020 and September 2021. A total of 28 cricketers has been divided into four grades, with Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Rohit Sharma being the only three players to be placed in the Grade A+ category.
Rishabh Pant has maintained his Grade A contract after putting up a series of brilliant performances in the last few months. Most of the Test match specialists, including Ishant Sharma and vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane, find themselves in Grade A. They will be paid INR 5 crore annually. Hardik Pandya has been promoted to Grade A despite missing many matches due to a nagging back injury.
The likes of Mayank Agarwal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav have been awarded Grade B contracts, for which they will receive an annual fee of INR 3 crores. Mohammed Siraj and Shubman Gill got their first central contracts, while Manish Pandey and Kedar Jadhav have fallen out of favour.
Here is the full list:
Grade A +: Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Rohit Sharma.
Grade A: Shikhar Dhawan, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishant Sharma, KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara.
Grade B: Mayank Agarwal, Wriddhiman Saha, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Shardul Thakur.
Grade C: Kuldeep Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Shubhman Gill, Hanuma Vihari, Axar Patel, Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Siraj.