The Board of Control for Cricket in India on Wednesday announced the Annual Player Contracts for Team India (Senior Men) for the 2023-24 season (October 1st, 2023 to September 30th, 2024). The major omissions from the list were Indian cricket team star duo Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan. “Please note that Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were not considered for the annual contracts in this round of recommendations,” the BCCI said.
There were enough speculations about the duo being dropped from the BCCI contract list. Ishan Kishan took a break midway into India’s Tour of South Africa. After that Ishan Kishan was not picked for the T20I series at home against Afghanistan and the Test series against England. Indian cricket team head coach Rahul Dravid made it absolutely clear that Ishan Kishan had to play some form of the game to make a return to the national team. However, he kept on missing the Ranji Trophy matches for his state team Jharkhand.
Shreyas Iyer recently excused himself from a Ranji Trophy game of Mumbai due to a back issue. A report in the Times of India had predicted that the duo will be dropped from the BCCI contracts list. “Kishan and Iyer are likely to be excluded from that list, as both haven’t been playing domestic cricket despite the BCCI’s diktat to do so,” a source told the paper.
Meanwhile, among the other players – Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja were placed in the highest – A+ – category. Six players – R Ashwin, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya – are in the A category.
“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,” a BCCI released said.
“The Selection Committee has also recommended Fast Bowling contracts for the following athletes – Akash Deep, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Umran Malik, Yash Dayal and Vidwath Kaverappa.
“The BCCI has recommended that all athletes give precedence to participating in domestic cricket during periods when they are not representing the national team.”
Full list of BCCI contractes players:
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.
More updates to follow
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