The Board of Control for Cricket in India announced the revised central contracts to the men's senior team members for the 2023-24 season on Wednesday. Both Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan are the biggest names missing the list after a dip in form across formats in recent months.
Stra batters KL Rahul and Shubman Gill are promoted to Grade A contracts after impressive performances in the year 2023. Both Dhruv Jurel and Sarfaraz Khan also miss out on the central contracts as they fail to meet the criteria of playing a minimum of three Test matches. But the BCCI has confirmed that both players will be included in the annual contract list if they feature in the upcoming 5th Test match against England in Dharamsala.
"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," the BCCI statement said. "Please note that Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were not considered for the annual contracts in this round of recommendations. The BCCI has recommended that all athletes give precedence to participating in domestic cricket during periods when they are not representing the national team."
Mohammed Siraj is also promoted to Grade A from B while the in-form spinner Kuldeep Yadav is promoted to B. The in-form youngster Yashasvi Jaiswal bagged his maiden central contract with Grade B.
Apart from Ishan and Shreyas, five cricketers Cheteshwar Pujara, Yuzvendra Chahal, Umesh Yadav, Deepak Hooda and Shikhar Dhawan are also excluded from the latest annual contracts.
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 Gaikwad, 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.
Meanwhile, the BCCI also revealed that the Selection Committee has recommended five fast bowlers Akash Deep, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Umran Malik, Yash Dayal and Vidwath Kaverappa for the central contracts.
