Jonny Bairstow, England's wicketkeeper batsman, has been removed from the list of centrally contracted Test cricketers for the upcoming year, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) confirmed on Wednesday (September 30). 

Bairstow was dropped from England's Test side last winter following a poor run and didn't play any of the summer games versus West Indies and Pakistan. 

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The 31-year-old, who has featured in 70 Tests with an average of 34.74, however, has retained his white-ball contract, a sign he remains a force to be reckoned with in the eyes of the selectors when it comes to the shorter formats. 

Bairstow's loss has been some promising youngsters' gain, with Ollie Pope, Zak Crawley and Dom Sibley all featuring in the new Test contracts list after scoring their maiden centuries in the past one year. 

One other noticeable exclusion from the same list is fast bowler Mark Wood, considered integral to England's plans for the next Ashes in Australia. The injury-prone speedster has been given a white-ball only contract. 

Only few big names bagged both Tests and white-ball contracts, reflective of the times when being a regular in all formats is quite a rarity. 

Dom Bess, Chris Jordan, Dawid Malan and Jack Leach have been awarded 'increment' contracts, which helps top up their pay from county cricket. 

Encouraging Bess and Leach shows England's priorities through the winter where tours of Sri Lanka and India await. 

Malan recently became the No.1 ranked ICC T20I batsman. The 20-over format is also where Jordan remains England's preferred death-overs pace option. 

"On the 2019/2020 terms, red-ball deals were understood to be worth around £650,000 ($835,000) before bonuses, with white-ball contracts worth about £275,000, but the hefty financial impact of Covid-19 means there is uncertainty over this year's payments," states a report by AFP. 

"The ECB estimates the pandemic has already cost the game £100 million, with further losses likely, and is currently undergoing a round of redundancies."

England contracts for 2020/21:

Test and white-ball: Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes.

Test only: James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Dom Sibley, Sam Curran.

White-ball only: Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Tom Curran, Eoin Morgan, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, Mark Wood.