Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan lose BCCI central contracts; full list of annual retainership here

The BCCI recently unveiled the central contracts for the 2023-24 season, featuring a Grade A+ category that includes stalwarts like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, and Ravindra Jadeja. However, conspicuous by their absence are Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer, signalling a notable exclusion from the prestigious list of contracted players.

BCCI unveiled its annual player retainership for the 2023/24 season, and notable exclusions from the central contracts were Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer.

In a statement, the board clarified, "Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were not considered for the annual contracts in this round of recommendations. The BCCI has recommended that all athletes give precedence to participating in domestic cricket during periods when they are not representing the national team." The duo has been absent from the Indian team, reportedly due to their refusal to participate in the ongoing Ranji Trophy season.

Cheteshwar Pujara, who received a Grade B contract last season, was also left off the list, having not played a Test match since the World Test Championship final against Australia in June 2023.

Newcomers Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, and Yashasvi Jaiswal secured their first contracts, while Shubman Gill was promoted from Grade B to Grade A. The top grade, A+, continued to feature Indian captain Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, and Jasprit Bumrah.

Additionally, the BCCI introduced 'Fast Bowling contracts' for Akash Deep, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Umran Malik, Yash Dayal, and Vidwath Kaverappa. The board specified that players participating in three Tests, eight ODIs, or 10 T20Is would automatically be included in Grade C.

Here is full list of player contracts:

Grade A+ (4 players):
Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, and Ravindra Jadeja.

Grade A (6 players):
R. Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed. Siraj, K.L. Rahul, Shubman Gill, and Hardik Pandya.

Grade B (5 players):
Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, and Yashasvi Jaiswal.

Grade C (15 players):
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.

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