Acknowledging Rishabh Pant’s consistent performances, the BCCI has rewarded the young wicketkeeper-batsman with a Grade A retainership while demoting senior opener Shikhar Dhawan from the elite A plus category in the latest list of Central Contracts.
The BCCI announced the annual contracts late on Thursday night,handing retainership to 25 cricketers in four groups of A plus (Rs 7 crore), A(Rs 5 crore), B (Rs 3 crore) and C (Rs 1 crore).
Last year, 26 players were handed contracts.
Not only Dhawan but pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar has also been droppedfrom the highest-paying category and now only three players — skipper ViratKohli, limited-overs deputy Rohit Sharma and premier pacer in all formatsJasprit Bumrah – figure in the elite category.
Left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed and batsman Hanuma Vihari are the newentrants in the C group.
Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw and Vijay Shankar, who have madeimpression in Tests and limited-overs respectively, have not been included inthe list since they do not meet the criteria of having played either threeTests or eight ODIs.
It seems to be curtains for veterans M. Vijay and Suresh Raina, whohave been dropped from the list after being in A and C group in last year’slist.
The biggest gainer is 21-year-old Pant, who wasn’t a part of thelast year’s list but directly made it to the A group with 10 others.
Pant is expected to be a first choice in all formats once MS Dhoniretires. He was rewarded for being the first Indian keeper to score Testhundred in England and Australia.
The notable loser was Dhawan, who has had dip in form in the lastsix months in ODIs. He was also dropped from the Test squad before theAustralia series.
Bhuvneshwar also lost out on A plus category as he is no longer anall-format certainty.
The same logic was applied to Cheteshwar Pujara as he was retainedin A category contract.
“Pujara did well in Australia but A plus category is only for thosewho are excelling in at least two if not three formats. Pujara is only playingone format. Similarly Ishant Sharma plays one format and is in A category,” aBCCI official told PTI on condition of anonymity.
Ajinkya Rahane remains in the A category while Kuldeep Yadav isalso part of second best group.
Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul, the two players embroiled in recentchat show controversy, remain in the B group along with Umesh Yadav andYuzvendra Chahal.
Wriddhiman Saha, who missed out on entire last season due to ashoulder surgery, has been demoted from B to C category.
Jayant Yadav, Karun Nair, Parthiv Patel and Axar Patel are also out of central contracts as they have fallen off the radar.