The BCCI Central Contract provides Ravindra Jadeja an elite A+ grade and promoted Axar Patel to an A grade in their annual contract announcement on Sunday. Jadeja, 34, is a series man in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia. He was one of four players placed in the A-plus category alongside skipper Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and the injured Jasprit Bumrah.
They demoted top batsman KL Rahul to B-Tier after a string of poor performances.BCCI handed over the contract to 26 cricketers in four groups of A plus (Rs 7 crore), A (Rs 5 crore), B (Rs 3 crore), and C (Rs 1 crore).
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BCCI denied a contract to Pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ajinkya Rahane and Ishant Sharma.
It looks like the curtain for the trio of veterans who have been battered off the contract list, indicating they are no longer on the national team’s tally. Spin all-rounder Axar had plenty to celebrate when he was promoted to Category A, while wicketkeeper-batsman KS Bharat also received a first center-back contract after being listed in Group C.
Star wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant, who is recovering after receiving treatment for his injuries remains in every A category. It includes Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Mohammed Shami. There were six cricketers in Group B. Cheteshwar Pujara, KL Rahul, Mohammed Siraj, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, and Shubman Gill.
Group C consists of 11 cricketers. Umesh Yadav, Shikhar Dhawan, Shardul Thakur, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, and Bharat.
The elite A+ category has players who are sure candidates for all three formats, while ‘A’ includes cricketers who are test certainties and one-day players.
Players eligible for Limited cricket are in Pool B, while players in Pool C are generally regularly considered for one of three formats.
