NEW DELHI : The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Thursday announced the new player contracts for India senior men players, with four classifications dividing the players.

Notably, former India captain MS Dhoni was dropped from the BCCI’s list of centrally contracted players, raising fresh doubts on the future of the veteran wicketkeeper-batsman, who has not played since the World Cup semi-final loss to New Zealand in 2019. Apart from MS Dhoni, Dinesh Karthik, Khaleel Ahmed and recently-retired Ambati Rayudu have been dropped from the central contract.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Thursday announced the new player contracts for India senior men players, with four classifications dividing the players. Notably, former India captain MS Dhoni was dropped from the BCCI’s list of centrally contracted players, raising fresh doubts on the future of the veteran wicketkeeper-batsman, who has not played since the World Cup semi-final loss to New Zealand in 2019.
Apart from MS Dhoni, Dinesh Karthik, Khaleel Ahmed and recently-retired Ambati Rayudu have been dropped from the central contract. The BCCI announced the central contracts for the period of October 2019 to September 2020. Dhoni was in the A category, which fetches a player Rs 5 crore, until last year.
The contracts, from October 2019 to September 2020, are in four categories – A+ (Rs 7 crore), A (Rs 5 crore), B (Rs 3 crore) and C (Rs 1 crore). As many as 27 players have been divided into these four categories, with skipper Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah being the three in the A+ category.
According to a BCCI release, following are the players in the other Category A: Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Mohammad Shami, Ishant Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav and Rishabh Pant.
Category B: Wriddhiman Saha, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal.  Category C: Kedar Jadhav, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Manish Pandey, Hanuma Vihari, Shardul Thakur, Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar. Category A: Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Mohammad Shami, Ishant Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav and Rishabh Pant.
Category B: Wriddhiman Saha, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal.  Category C: Kedar Jadhav, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Manish Pandey, Hanuma Vihari, Shardul Thakur, Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar.

Jasprit Bumrah has taken giant strides over the last year and has become India’s pace spearhead across all the three formats. He thus retains his place in the top tier along side Kohli and Rohit. In-form top order batsman KL Rahul has been promoted to Grade A from Grade B, despite losing his place in the Test squad.

As many as 27 players have been divided into these four categories, with skipper Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah being the three in the A+ category.
The likes of Ambati Rayudu, Khaleel Ahmed and Dinesh Karthik have been dropped from the contracts. Test opener Mayank Agarwal has made an impact in the longest format and has been rewarded with a Category B contract. The likes of Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Shreyas Iyer and Washington Sundar have been included in the Category C.
(With Agency Inputs ).