Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah has reached great heights ever since making his debut in 2016 and has become an important part of the team plans in all three formats. But his biggest revelation came in Test cricket, where many experts had written him off due to his unique bowling action.
He has also shown great improvement when it comes to pay-packages as he ended the year 2020 as the highest-paid cricketer by the BCCI while leaving behind the likes of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.
Bumrah, who made his return to international cricket at the start of the year, earned a whopping Rs 1.38 crore. Bumrah, who is also one of the three players with an A+ contract, played 4* Tests, nine ODIs, and 8 T20Is in 2020.
Kohli could have finished the year at the top but he is skipping the ongoing second Test match against Australia, which sees him finish at the second spot.
An Indian player is paid Rs 15 lakh for every Test match. For an ODI, he receives an amount of Rs 6 lakh. For every T20I, the BCCI pays Rs 3 lakh to every player. In 2020, Bumrah earned Rs 1.38 crore from BCCI (excluding the annual contract fee).
Kohli, who played 3 Tests, nine ODIs, and 10 T20Is this year, has drawn Rs 1.29 crore. Had he played the ongoing Boxing Day Test match, he would have finished at the top spot.
Following Kohli is Ravindra Jadeja, who earned Rs 96 lakh by playing 2 Tests*, 9 ODIs, and four T20Is. He missed the crore-mark by missing the last two T20Is and the first Test at Adelaide.
However, the biggest surprise was Rohit Sharma not making it into the top five also. Rohit, Team India's white-ball vice-captain, missed a number of fixtures due to fitness issues. His New Zealand tour was cut short due to a calf issue. It forced him to miss the 3 ODIs and two Test matches. Rohit also sat out of the majority of Australia fixtures.
Since Rohit only played 3 ODIs and 4 T20Is in 2020, he drew a cheque of Rs 30 lakh. He couldn't play a red-ball match this year.
(timesnownews inputs)
