New Delhi: In the midst of the prevailing controversy surrounding certain players choosing to skip domestic cricket, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has made a notable decision by excluding Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan from the annual player contracts for Team India (Senior Men) for the 2023-24 season.
Leading the Grade A+ category are the stalwarts of Indian cricket: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, and Ravindra Jadeja.
Grade A comprises six athletes including R Ashwin, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, and Hardik Pandya.
The Grade B roster features five athletes: Surya Kumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Meanwhile, Grade C includes a diverse pool of fifteen athletes, encompassing 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.
The Selection Committee has also recommended Fast Bowling contracts for the following athletes – Akash Deep, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Umran Malik, Yash Dayal and Vidwath Kaverappa.
Additionally, 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 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.
Notably, the BCCI has recommended that all athletes give precedence to participating in domestic cricket during periods when they are not representing the national team.
