The BCCI Apex Council came to an end where discussions about the central contracts had the utmost importance. On one hand, Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya are set to be promoted after their spectacular performances in 2022. On the other side, it’s some bad news for Ajinkya Rahane and Mayank Agarwal as they will be dropped from the central contracts.
Hardik Pandya is in Group C and soon he will be promoted to Group B. Last year, he was demoted to Group C after he missed important games due to his back injury. He’ll take over the T20 captaincy from Rohit Sharma. Players like Ajinkya Rahane who earlier served as the vice-captain, Ishant Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Wriddhiman Saha and Mayank Aggarwal will be losing their place.
“Surya was in Group C but his performance in the last one year warrants a promotion to Group B at least, if not A. He is currently world No. 1 in T20I ICC rankings and is a serious contender in ODI team also,” a senior BCCI official said
Shubman gill who’s placed at Group C will climb one grade higher to Group B. It’s speculated that Ishan Kishan will get a promotion as well after smashing the fastest ODI double-century on Saturday. KL Rahul is going to get promoted to Grade A+. He’s the standby skipper in absence of Rohit Sharma in the ODI and Test format. Axar patel can break into the Grade A category as he has done a great job in all the three formats in absence of Ravindra JAdeja.
Cricketers with current BCCI Central contracts
- A+ Grade (Rs 7 crore): Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Rohit Sharma.
- A Grade (Rs 5 crore): Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami.
- B Grade (Rs 3 crore): Cheteshwar Pujara, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Shreyas Iyer, Mohammed Siraj, Hardik Pandya
- C Grade (Rs 1 crore): Shikhar Dhawan, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Washington Sundar, Deepak Chahar, Shubman Gill, Hanuma Vihari, Yuzvendra Chahal, Suryakumar Yadav, and Mayank Agarwal.
2023 and 2024 are very crucial years for the Indian cricket team, with the 50 over WOrld Cup in 2023 and T20 World Cup in 2024. BCCI really made some tough calls this time.
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