The BCCI will be discussing the central contracts in the Apex Council Meeting on December 21. Promotion is on the cards for Suryakumar Yadav and Shubman Gill however Test specialists Ajinkya Rahane and Ishant Sharma will be dropped from the annual contracts. Hardik Pandya is also set to get a raise with the promotion to captaincy.
Currently, Hardik Pandya is in Group C. He will be replacing Rohit Sharma as the T20 captain and get the promotion to Group B. Ishant Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha and Ajinkya Rahane will be not in the central contracts anymore.
As per a senior official, “Surya was in Group C but his performance in the last one year warrants a promotion to Group B at least, if not A. He is currently world No. 1 in T20I ICC rankings and is a serious contender in ODI team also.”
Shubman Gill is in the Grade C bracket and soon, he will be shifted to the Grade B bracket. There’s a high chance that Ishan Kishan gets a promotion. The 24-year-old smashed a double century on Saturday. Hardik Pandya, who will be handed over the T20 captaincy is currently in B Grade. He impressed the Board with his spectacular performances and will be getting a promotion soon. Last year, he was pushed down to Group C as he missed important matches for a back injury. KL Rahul is also likely to jump to Grade A+. He’s the stand-by skipper in Rohit Sharma’s absence.
What does the BCCI central contract look like?
Apart from them, another future leader, KL Rahul is likely to jump to Grade A+. He is the defacto captain in Rohit Sharma’s absence in ODI and Test
- Grade A+ consists of Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, and Rohit Sharma with a salary of Rs 7 crore.
- Grade A consists of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, and Mohammed Shami with a salary of Rs 5 crore.
- Grade B consists of Cheteshwar Pujara, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Shreyas Iyer, Mohammed Siraj, and Hardik Pandya with a salary of Rs 3 crore.
- Grade C consists of Shikhar Dhawan, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Washington Sundar, Deepak Chahar, Shubman Gill, Hanuma Vihari, Yuzvendra Chahal, Suryakumar Yadav and Mayank Agarwal with a salary o Rs 1 crore.
