BCCI announce Annual Player Contracts for 2019-20; Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah handed A+ grade

Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma

Former Indian captain MS Dhoni was dropped from the list of Annual Player Contract awardees announced today by the Board of Control for Cricket in India. MS Dhoni, who held a Grade A category contract for the 2018-19 season, hasn't represented the national team since India's semi-final defeat at the hands of New Zealand in the 2019 World Cup in England and Wales.

KL Rahul was upgraded from Grade B to Grade A category while Mayank Agarwal also benefitted from his impressive Test performances to be named in the Grade B category. Rishabh Pant continued to remain in the Grade A category despite losing the wicket-keeping responsibilities to Wriddhiman Saha in Test Cricket. Saha was also promoted from Grade C to Grade B category.

Dinesh Karthik, Ambati Rayudu also Khaleel Ahmed lost their central contracts.

Mayank Agarwal

BCCI Central Contracts for 2019-20

Grade A+ (INR 7 cr)

Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah

Grade A (INR 5 cr)

Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav, Rishabh Pant

Grade B (INR 3 cr)

Wriddhiman Saha, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal

Grade C (INR 1 cr)

Kedar Jadhav, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Manish Pandey, Hanuma Vihari, Shardul Thakur, Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar

KL Rahul