The major surprises in BCCI's annual contract list

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) recently released the annual player contracts for Team India, which were on the expected lines barring a few surprises here and there.

A total of 26 players were awarded contracts by the BCCI, with only four being a part of the A+ category. There have been several promotions, demotions, inclusions, and ommisions from the contract list that the BCCI announced last year.

Full Contract List:

Grade A+ (INR 7 Cr): Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja & Jasprit Bumrah.

Grade A (INR 5 Cr): Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Rishabh Pant & Axar Patel.

Grade B (INR 3 Cr): Cheteshwar Pujara, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Mohammed Siraj, Suryakumar Yadav & Shubman Gill.

Grade C (INR 1 Cr): Umesh Yadav, Shikhar Dhawan, Shardul Thakur, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh & KS Bharat.

Here, we look at the major surprises on the annual contract list.

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#1 Shikhar Dhawan being retained

Shikhar Dhawan has been placed in Grade C by the BCCI

Much to the surprise of pundits and fans, senior batter Shikhar Dhawan was offered a contract despite being discarded from the team's plans in recent times.

Dhawan last played a Test match and a T20I in 2014 and 2021 respectively and was a specialist ODI player until a few months back. He was dropped in favor of young opener Shubman Gill and it seemed like the 37-year-old's international career was over. However, his inclusion in the list has left people surprised.

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#2 The inclusion of Sanju Samson

Sanju Samson is part of the C catergory in the contract list of the BCCI

Having made his international debut way back in 2015, Sanju Samson has featured in only 28 games so far. He has never really had a consistent run in the senior side despite showing immense promise and skill in the domestic circuit and IPL. The 28-year old last played for India in a T20 against Sri-Lanka at the start of the year, after which he was injured.

Post his recovery, he was not included in any squad which left the impression that he was discarded, yet again. His inclusion in the contract list now implies that the BCCI and the team management might not be on the same page with regard to the Kerala batter.