KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Mohammed Siraj have moved up to Grade A in the BCCI Annual Contracts of senior men’s team for the season running from October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024.
Notably, Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer have not been included in the 30-member list of players awarded the BCCI Central Contracts, which is up from 26 last year. In the last season, Rahul, Gill and Siraj were in Grade B, but impressive performances in the Men’s ODI World Cup and Test matches have meant the trio join Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Shami and Hardik Pandya to be the six players in Grade A.
Grade A+ has four players in captain Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah, unchanged from last year. Yashasvi Jaiswal finds himself in Grade B contract alongside Suryakumar Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav (promoted from Grade C), Axar Patel and Rishabh Pant (both moved down from Grade A).
The BCCI said in a statement that Shreyas and Ishan, who were in Grade B and C respectively in the last central contracts list, were not considered for the annual contracts in this round of recommendations. It also recommended that all athletes give precedence to participating in domestic cricket during periods when they are not representing the national team.
The Selection Committee has also recommended fast-bowling contracts for Akash Deep, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Umran Malik, Yash Dayal and Vidwath Kaverappa. Additionally, BCCI said 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 two Test matches so far, will be inducted into Grade C if they participate in the Dharamsala Test Match, i.e., the fifth Test of the ongoing series against England.
Grade A+ – Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja.
Grade A – R Ashwin, Mohd Shami, Mohd Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya.
Grade B – Surya Kumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Grade C – 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.