The BCCI, on Monday (April 21), announced the list of centrally contracted players for the ongoing 2024-25 season. A total of 34 players have received the contracts, while seven of them have earned it for the very first time.
Additionally, four players have also been dropped. Shardul Thakur, KS Bharat, Avesh Khan, and Jitesh Sharma were in the Grade C list for last season but failed to make the cut for the ongoing season.
Rohit, Kohli, Bumrah, and Jadeja enjoy the top brass
The players have been divided into four categories. The top category (Grade A+) has four players – Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, and Ravindra Jadeja.
The Grade A+ category remains unchanged. Even though Rohit, Kohli, and Jadeja have retired from T20Is after India won the T20 World Cup last year, the BCCI has handed them the top central contracts.
Grade A has six players. While the number of players in Grade A category has not changed, one new player has been added to the list.
With Ravichandran Ashwin retiring from international cricket, he has been replaced by Rishabh Pant in the Grade A category. Pant was in the Grade B category in the previous retainership.
Also Read: India Test, ODI, T20 squads after BCCI Central Contracts List Announcement
Grade B has five players, including Shreyas Iyer, who was not considered for the central contracts last season. On the other hand, Grade C has 19 players, including Ishan Kishan, who was also not considered for the contracts last time.
Seven new players get central contracts from the BCCI:
Seven players have earned central contracts from the BCCI for the very first time in their careers. The seven players are:
- Nitish Kumar Reddy
- Dhruv Jurel
- Abhishek Sharma
- Sarfaraz Khan
- Akash Deep
- Varun Chakravarthy
- Harshit Rana.
6 Players Made India Debut Last Year
Out of the seven players, six made their debut for Team India last year. Only Varun Chakravarthy had made his debut for India in 2021 and was dropped shortly after. Chakravarthy was recalled to the Indian team last year and has done well since then.
On the other hand, Dhruv Jurel, Sarfaraz Khan, and Akash Deep made their India debuts during the home Test series against England last year. Abhishek Sharma made his debut during the T20I series against Zimbabwe last year, while Harshit made his debut during the Test tour of Australia.
Meanwhile, Rishabh Pant is the only player to be promoted from the last BCCI Central Contracts as he has been moved to Grade A from Grade B.