Shubman Gill and Mohammed Siraj earn first BCCI contracts

Shubman Gill

Stand-out India prospects Shubman Gill and Mohammed Siraj have been given their first annual player contracts from the BCCI after impressing in the early stages of their international careers.

The BCCI revealed an updated 28-player contract list for the men’s team for the period between October 2020 and September 2021 on Thursday, with Siraj, Gill and spinner Axar Patel the three new names in the group.

Patel returns to the contract list for the first time since 2017-18.

Siraj and Gill were crucial to India’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy triumph in Australia, while Patel has shone in the Test arena since debuting against England this year.

Three players in A+ category

There are four groups in the BCCI’s contract list, with ‘A+’ players on INR 7 crore (Approximately £680,000) retainers, ‘A’ players INR 5 crore (Approximately £485,000), ‘B’ players INR 3 crore (Approximately £290,000), and ‘C’ players INR 1 crore (Approximately £100,000).

India captain Virat Kohli, opening batter Rohit Sharma and pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah have all been classed A+ players.

Ten players make up the ‘A’ group, with Hardik Pandya the lone new name among them after being in the ‘B’ group last year.

Wriddhiman Saha, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shardul Thakur and Mayank Agarwal make up the ‘B’ group, paid INR three crore, with the remaining 10 contracted players in the ‘C’ group.

Wrist spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal, who were a crucial part of India’s plans in the lead-up to the 50-over World Cup in 2019, have suffered demotions in the BCCI’s list. Kuldeep was among the core group of Grade A players in the 2019-20 contracts list, while Chahal featured in Grade B last time out.

Kedar Jadhav and Manish Pandey, who have lost their place in India’s white-ball squads over recent months, have dropped out of the BCCI men’s central contracts list.

BCCI India men’s contract list

A+: Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah
A: Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya
B: Wriddhiman Saha, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shardul Thakur, Mayank Agarwal
C: Kuldeep Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Shubman Gill, Hanuma Vihari, Axar Patel, Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Siraj

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