BCCI announce national contracts: Steep fall for Hardik Pandya, Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara

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According to reports, BCCI have announced the national men’s team contracts for the year 2022-23 with big step downs for the likes of Hardik Pandya, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane. While Hardik Pandya went down from the Grade A contract (INR 5 crore) to Grade C (INR 1 crore), Pujara and Rahane were demoted from Grade A to Grade B.

Wriddhiman Saha, who recently lost the wicketkeeper slot in the Test team, went from Grade B to Grade C.

According to reports, the categories are as follows

BCCI contract Grades according to reports

Grade A+: Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah.

Grade A: Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami and Rishabh Pant.

Grade B: Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Shreyas Iyer, Mohammed Siraj and Ishant Sharma.

Grade C: Shikhar Dhawan, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar, Shubman Gill, Hanuma Vihari, Yuzvendra Chahal, Suryakumar Yadav and Mayank Agarwal

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The key players to miss out on a national contract involve Ishan Kishan, who has been a regular in the limited-overs sides in recent times, Venkatesh Iyer and Kuldeep Yadav, who has fallen down the pecking order after his decline in all formats. Kuldeep has only started for Kolkata Knight Riders, his IPL franchise till last year, in five matches across the last two seasons.

Grade A+ contract goes to Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah alone, the elite players in the setup. While Kohli stepped down as the captain across all formats in the current contract period, Rohit Sharma elevated his leadership role by taking on the captaincy across all formats. Jasprit Bumrah is identified as the future vice-captain and is also in the elite Grade A+ category.

KL Rahul, who skippered the ODI team in the absence of Rohit Sharma in the three-match ODI series in South Africa, and the one Test, is in Grade A alongside Rishabh Pant, who is now first-choice wicketkeeper in all formats, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, and Mohammed Shami.

Pujara and Rahane join the likes of Ishant Sharma in Grade B. The trio were dropped for the home series against Sri Lanka after poor performances in the last WTC cycle and afterwards. While a long rope was given to both Rahane and Pujara, the duo were axed from the Test team and asked to play Ranji Trophy recently. The same was asked of Ishant Sharma, who is now behind the pecking order with the rise of Mohammed Siraj and the impact of Umesh Yadav in home Tests.

Hardik Pandya has been hampered by injuries and his inability to bowl because of it. With India largely labelling him as a batting all-rounder, the cutting off of the secondary skill has meant Hardik’s position in jeopardy. The likes of Washington Sundar, Venkatesh Iyer , Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur have shown promise in the all-rounder’s role in his stead.

More to follow…

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