Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan lose BCCI central contracts: Details here
In a major development, the BCCI has terminated the annual contracts of Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan. The duo has been under the scanner after the BCCI mandated the contracted players to play First-Class cricket. Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, and Ravindra Jadeja are the four cricketers in Grade A+ category in the annual contracts (October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024).
BCCI annual player retainership 2023-24 (Grade A+, A, and B)
Grade A+ (4): Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, and Ravindra Jadeja. Grade A (6): Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, and Hardik Pandya. Grade B: (5): Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Contracts of Iyer, Ishan terminated
As mentioned, Ishan and Iyer have been on BCCI's radar of late. Subsequently, Indian captain Rohit Sharma on Monday clarified that only those who "have the hunger" to play will be prioritized in Test cricket. Iyer was dropped for the final three England Tests and skipped the Ranji quarter-final. And Ishan had been on a personal break.
BCCI annual player retainership 2023-24 (Grade C)
Grade C (15): 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.
New fast-bowling contracts
A BCCI release stated that the selection committee has also recommended fast-bowling contracts for several players. These are Akash Deep, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Umran Malik, Yash Dayal, and Vidwath Kaverappa.
The new promotion criteria
The BCCI stated that players with a minimum of three Tests or eight ODIs or 10 T20Is within the specified period will automatically reach Grade C. Dhruv Jurel and Sarfaraz Khan, each of whom has played two Tests, will be promoted if they feature in the Dharamsala Test against England. The contracted players will have to play domestic cricket when not representing India.
A look at the notable takeaways
Senior players Rohit, Kohli, Bumrah, and Jadeja retain their top spot on the contract list. For Iyer and Ishan, the BCCI stated they "were not considered for the annual contracts in this round of recommendations". Iyer and Ishan lost their Grade B and C contracts, respectively. Meanwhile, Yashasvi Jaiswal, the star of the ongoing England Test series, has entered Grade B.