The Board of Control for Cricket in India unveiled updated central contracts for the men’s senior team for the 2023-24 season and it has come with a surprise.
The list revealed by the BCCI has seen the exclusion of notable players Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan due to a decline in performance across different formats in recent months.
Kishan’s last appearance for India was in the T20I series against Australia in November. After this, he withdrew from the South Africa tour at the beginning of the year due to personal reasons. During this period, he opted out of participating in the Ranji Trophy for Jharkhand and reportedly underwent training sessions in Baroda alongside Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya.
The Selection Committee has also recommended Fast Bowling contracts for the following athletes Akash Deep, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Umran Malik, Yash Dayal and Vidwath Kaverappa” said BCCI in a Tweet.
“Additionally, athletes who meet the criteria of playing a minimum of 3 Tests or 8 ODIs or 10 T20Is within the specified period will automatically be included in Grade C on a pro-rata basis. For instance, Dhruv Jurel and Sarfaraz Khan, having played 2 Test matches so far, will be inducted into Grade C if they participate in the Dharamsala Test Match, i.e., the 5th Test of the ongoing series against England” added BCCI in release.
Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer have been excluded from the BCCI Central Contract. pic.twitter.com/Q8UW1p0LBg
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) February 28, 2024
The two star batters of the team KL Rahul and Shubman Gill have been elevated to Grade A contracts after their notable performances in the year 2023.
Here are the list of players in grade list
Grade A+ (4 Athletes): Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja.
Grade A (6 Athletes): R Ashwin, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya.
Grade B (5 Athletes): Surya Kumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Grade C (15 Athletes): 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.
