BCCI announces annual contract list: Legendary wicket-keeper batsman has faced the axe for the first time since his debut.
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Legendary India wicket-keeper batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been omitted from the list of BCCI’s annually contracted players for the period from October 2019 to September 2020.
It is worth mentioning that the 38-year old batsman had last played competitive cricket during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019. Dhoni had missed the West Indies tour due to his training for the parachute regiment of the Indian Army in Kashmir valley.
While there was no official reason why Dhoni missed the home T20Is against South Africa, he subsequently announced that fans shouldn’t ask him about his comeback till January 2020.
Considering his looming international retirement, the cricket board seems to have moved on from Dhoni much like the selectors. While Dhoni will take part in the next season of the Indian Premier League, nothing conclusive can be said about his participation at the highest level.
BCCI announces annual contract list
The trio of India captain Virat Kohli, opening batsman Rohit Sharma and fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah has been named in the Grade A+ category. With all the three players regular part of the Indian team across formats, the decision seems to be a fitting one.
Grade A comprises of many Test specialists (Ravichandran Ashwin, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane and Ishant Sharma) and others who at least feature in two formats for India.
Seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who recently underwent a sports hernia injury, has been included in the Grade A category. However, all-rounder Hardik Pandya, who is on the road to recovery from a back injury, finds himself in the Grade B category.
Grade A+ (INR 7 crore) – Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah.
Grade A (INR 5 crore) – Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Mohd. Shami, Ishant Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav, Rishabh Pant.
Grade B (INR 3 crore) – Wriddhiman Saha, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal.
Grade C (INR 1 crore) – Kedar Jadhav, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Manish Pandey, Hanuma Vihari, Shardul Thakur, Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar.
