NEW DELHI, Mar 27: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has given central contract to 26 players in different grades while entirely dropping from the list the likes of Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Ajinkya Rahane and Ishant Sharma.
A surprise inclusion in the list announced on Monday, however, was that of Shikhar Dhawan, the opening batsman who lately has not been finding a place in India’s playing 11 across all the three formats. Keeping him in the central contract, though in Grad C, shows that the BCCI might be contemplating to bring him back in the team at some stage if needed. By and large the young Shubaman Gill has taken over Dhawan’s place in all the three formats so far.
While all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja has been promoted to the top bracket Grade A+ along with Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel has been included in Grade A while the young left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh find a place in Grade C.
Prominent among others to be dropped entirely from the list were the wicket-keeper batsman Wriddhiman Saha, the fast bowler Deepak Chahar and middle-order batsman Hanuma Vihari while KL Rahul was dropped down from Grade A to B.
Deepak Chahar is still considered a top talent but his injury issues have prevented him from becoming a central part of India’s pace attack. Hanuma Vihari, who has been an important squad player for India in Tests, also seems to be down in the pecking order now.
As far as the current list goes, the likes of Deepak Hooda, KS Bharat, and Arshdeep Singh are some of the names who have earned a deserved inclusion in the Grade C category.
Following is the list of central contract:
Grade A+: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja
Grade A: Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammad Shami, Rishabh Pant, Axar Patel.
Grade B: Cheteshwar Pujara, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Mohammad Siraj, Suryakumar Yadav, Shubaman Gill
Grade C: Umesh Yadav, Shikhar Dhawan, Shardul Thakur, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep yadav, Sanju Samson, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, KS Bharat.
(Manas Dasgupta)