The new Central Contract of the players issued by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has seen many big ups and downs. Where the luck of some players is open, many veteran players have also suffered. Team captain Rohit Sharma along with former captain Virat Kohli and fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah have retained their place in Grade A+ but Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara along with all-rounder Hardik Pandya and wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha have been dropped. The loss has been suffered.
Pujara and Rahane got a setback
The BCCI has put all the players involved in the contract in four different categories. The top category A plus category is the top, in which the players involved will be given Rs 7 crore annually by the board. After that A grade players will get 5 crores, B grade players will get 3 crores and C grade players will get 1 crore. This new contract of all players is from 1 October 2021 to September 2022.
Pujara and Rahane were earlier in Grade A. Now both these players have been placed in Grade B. Both these experienced batsmen have not been included in the Test series starting between India and Sri Lanka from Friday. Wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha has also been kept out of this team. Along with this, he has also suffered a loss in the contract. He has got a place in grade C instead of B. Hardik Pandya has suffered the biggest loss in all this. They have gone straight from grade A to C. Hardik has been running out of the team for a long time due to his poor fitness. He played his last match in T20 World Cup 2021.
Promotion of young players
Apart from these players, veteran batsman Shikhar Dhawan has also suffered heavy losses. He is now able to make a place in the team only in ODI cricket, due to which he has been kept in A to B grades. Umesh Yadav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar have now been pushed from B grade to C grade
Many young players have also benefited. Akshar Patel and Mohd Siraj have now moved from C to B in grades. Shreyas Iyer also has grade B. Rishabh Pant, who was the vice-captain of the team during the West Indies series, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, and Ravichandran Ashwin, who captained the team in the ODI series on the tour of South Africa, have retained their places in Grade A.