Veteran batters Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane might lose Grade A central contacts when the BCCI finalises its fresh list of contracted players for the upcoming season in a few days' time, PTI reported on Thursday (January 20).
It will be interesting to see whether the board officials upgrade the contract of KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant, who are considered as future captaincy candidates.
The BCCI has contract categories – A+, A, B and C – worth the package of Rs 7 crore, Rs 5 crore, Rs 3 crore and Rs 1 crore respectively.
As of now, only Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah feature in the elite A+ category.
According to the report, there won't be massive changes to the 28 names that featured in the last list but there could be some serious deliberations over the composition of the current groups which were in place last year.
"Obviously, Rohit, Kohli and Bumrah being the three indispensable players across formats would be in A plus category beyond doubt. But now Rahul and Pant are slowly establishing themselves as all-format regulars, so it needs to be seen whether the duo gets promotion or not," a senior BCCI source told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
Commenting on Pujara and Rahane's status, the source added: "The central contract is a performance indicator of where you stand as per your performance during the last season. If the BCCI and head coach (Rahul) Dravid decide to honour the duo and keep them in group A, then it's a different issue but under normal circumstances, they ideally won't feature in group A."
The situation is similar for Ishant Sharma and Hardik Pandya, who have struggled due to injuries and lack of form throughout the season and might be demoted to group B.
Among the group B players of last season, Shardul Thakur is likely to be promoted to group A after his all-round exploits throughout the season, especially in Test matches.
In current group C, fast bowler Mohammed Siraj has done brilliantly in the longest format while Shubman Gill is one for the future along with Hanuma Vihari, who would also be expecting an upgrade.
Last Season's Contract List:
Grade A+: Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah
Grade A: Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Mohammad Shami, Ishant Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya
Grade B: Wriddhiman Saha, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shardul Thakur, Mayank Agarwal
Grade C: Kuldeep Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Shubman Gill, Hanuma Vihari, Axar Patel, Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Siraj
(With PTI inputs)
