New Delhi, Feb 28 : KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Mohammed Siraj have moved up to Grade A in the BCCI Annual Contracts of senior men's team for the season running from October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024.

Notably, Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer have been excluded from the 30-member list of players awarded the BCCI Central Contracts, which is up from 26 last year.

In the last season, Rahul, Gill and Siraj were in Grade B, but impressive performances in the Men's ODI World Cup and Test matches have meant the trio join Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Shami and Hardik Pandya to be the six players in Grade A.

The BCCI said in a statement that Shreyas and Ishan, who were in Grade B and C respectively in the last central contracts list, were not considered for the annual contracts in this round of recommendations. It also recommended that all athletes give precedence to participating in domestic cricket during periods when they are not representing the national team.

Ishan had been out of cricketing action after pulling out of India's Tests against South Africa last year due to personal reasons. He was reported to be training in Baroda and missed the entire Ranji Trophy campaign for Jharkhand. Recently, Ishan returned to action via the ongoing DY Patil T20 tournament in Navi Mumbai.

On the other hand, after being omitted from India's Test squad for last three Tests against England, Shreyas missed Mumbai's Ranji Trophy quarter-final against Baroda due to back issues, but has been named in the squad for the semi-final against Tamil Nadu starting on March 2 at BKC Ground.

Apart from Shreyas and Ishan, there are no places for Cheteshwar Pujara, Shikhar Dhawan, Umesh Yadav, Deepak Hooda and Yuzvendra Chahal in the central contracts list. Grade A+ has four players in captain Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah, unchanged from last year.

Yashasvi Jaiswal, the leading run-getter in the ongoing Test series against England, is a new entrant in the central contracts and finds himself in Grade B alongside Suryakumar Yadav and Kuldeep Yadav (promoted from Grade C). Grade B also has Axar Patel and Rishabh Pant (out of cricketing action since December 2022 due to a horrific car accident), who were in Grade A last season.

Rinku Singh, Tilak Verma, Ruturaj Gaekwad, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, Jitesh Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan and Rajat Patidar are the other newbies in the central contracts at Grade C.

The Selection Committee has also recommended fast-bowling contracts for Akash Deep, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Umran Malik, Yash Dayal and Vidwath Kaverappa. Additionally, BCCI said athletes who meet the criteria of playing a minimum of 3 Tests or 8 ODIs or 10 T20Is within the specified period will automatically be included in Grade C on a pro-rata basis.

For instance, Dhruv Jurel and Sarfaraz Khan, having played two Test matches so far, will be inducted into Grade C if they participate in the fifth Test of the ongoing series against England, starting on March 7 in Dharamshala. An A+ contract is worth INR 7 crore, while A, B and C contracts are worth INR 5 crore, INR 3 crore, and INR 1 crore respectively.

List of BCCI central contracts for senior's men team for 2023/24 season

Grade A+ - Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja.

Grade A - R Ashwin, Mohd Shami, Mohd Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya.

Grade B - Surya Kumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Yashasvi Jaiswal.

Grade C - 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.

Fast-bowling contracts recommendations - Akash Deep, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Umran Malik, Yash Dayal and Vidwath Kaverappa.

/IANS