BCCI shuffles cricket contracts, Iyer and Kishan dropped, promotions for Rahul and Gill

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) revealed the annual retainership for the senior men's cricket team for the 2023-24 cycle. However, the spotlight fell on the omission of Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan from the annual retainership contract list, despite their participation in India's ODI World Cup campaign last year.

The top bracket (A+) retained stalwarts Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, and Ravindra Jadeja, among others, as 30 players secured spots in the central contracts list. Notably, Iyer and Kishan found themselves removed from the annual retainership contract due to their absence from the ongoing domestic cricket season, despite directives from the board and its secretary Jay Shah.

KL Rahul and Shubman Gill saw promotions, while Hardik Pandya maintained his Grade A status despite his unavailability for Test cricket. Pandya's leadership in T20Is in 2023 earned him recognition, though an injury during the World Cup and subsequent recovery sidelined him from the test arena.

Suryakumar Yadav, lauded for leading India in 8 T20Is, retained his Grade B status, while Yashasvi Jaiswal, the standout performer in India's series against England, debuted in Grade B. The criteria for Grade C inclusion revolve around playing a minimum number of matches in various formats within the specified period.

The released contract list includes:

Grade A+ (4 Athletes): Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, and Ravindra Jadeja.
Grade A (6 Athletes): R Ashwin, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, and Hardik Pandya.
Grade B (5 Athletes): Surya Kumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Grade C (15 Athletes): Rinku Singh, Tilak Verma, Ruturaj Gaekwad, Shardul Thakur, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, Jitesh Sharma, Washington Sundar, Mukesh Kumar, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, KS Bharat, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, and Rajat Patidar.