India’s veteran batswoman Mithali Raj on Thursday (January 16) was dropped to Grade B from A in the BCCI central contract list while Radha Yadav and Taniya Bhatia were promoted to the middle bracket.

It was expected to see Mithali’s name not featuring in the Rs 50 Lakh category as the 37-year-old hanged up her boots from the shortest format last year. However, she continues to lead the ODI side and intends to play till 2021 World Cup.

On the other hand, T20I skipper Harmanpreet Kaur retained her A category contract. Smriti Mandhana and Poonam Yadav are the other two cricketers to feature in the top bracket.

Read Also: Harmanpreet backs India's spin heavy attack to do well in T20 World Cup

Radha and Taniya, who were part of Grade C contract worth Rs 10 lakh last year, have now entered into Grade B (Rs 30 Lakh).

Players fetching their maiden central contracts are Shafali Verma and Harleen Deol. Shafali was outstanding in her debut season at the highest level and the teenage opener will be expected to deliver in the upcoming T20 World Cup Down Under.

Mona Meshram, who was in Grade C last year and represented India in 21 ODIs and 8 T20Is, has been left out from the new central contract list.

The latest contract is valid from October 2019 to September 2020.

Here’s the full list:

Grade A (Rs 50 Lakh) – Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Poonam Yadav.

Grade B (Rs 30 Lakh) – Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Ekta Bisht, Radha Yadav, Taniya Bhatia, Shikha Pandey, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma.

Grade C (Rs 10 Lakh) – Veda Krishnamurthy, Punam Raut, Anuja Patil, Mansi Joshi, D Hemlatha, Arundhati Reddy, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Pooja Vastrakar, Harleen Deol, Priya Punia, Shafali Verma.

(With PTI inputs)