The Board of Control of Cricket in India have announced the list of the annually contracted players for the period between October 2019 and September 2020.
Only 3 players in Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah have been included in the A+ category, fetching 7 crores. Test opener Mayank Agarwal, over the last year or so, has made some large strides in Test Cricket, helping him feature in Grade B along with the likes of Hardik Pandya and Yuzvendra Chahal, while young cricketers in Navdeep Saini and Washington Sundar have been drafted in Grade C, which also features Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur.
However, the player which has become the talking point is once again MS Dhoni. The former Indian skipper has been excluded from the annual contract, raising further speculation on his limited over’s cricket future.
Dhoni was listed in the A category last year. The CSK skipper last played in the World Cup semi-final game against New Zealand and since then has been on a sabbatical, making himself unavailable for every series India has played after the perennial tournament.
Apart from MS Dhoni, there have been 3 other notable omissions from the squad. Here’s a look at three players who have been excluded in BCCI annual contract players list:
- Dinesh Karthik
Perhaps one interesting omission that no one is talking about is Dinesh Karthik. Post the World Cup semi-final game against New Zealand, Karthik has not been included in any series, be it T20I or ODIs. Having remained under the shadow of MS Dhoni for the most part of his career, Dinesh Karthik’s T20 record speaks for itself. And heading into the T20 World Cup later this year, Karthik could be a great choice for the finisher’s role. But given that BCCI has excluded his name from the annual contract players list, World Cup semi-final game against New Zealand could well be the last international game of his career.
- Ambati Rayudu:
After giving him the assurance for his position in the World Cup side, Ambati Rayudu went into a shock when his name was omitted from the 2019 World Cup squad, leading to widespread controversy. Unfortunately, since that day, his absence was hardly noticed.
- Khaleel Ahmed:
Given the dearth of left-arm seamers in Indian bowling department, Khaleel Ahmed has been given quite a few chances to prove his mettle and make a place for himself in the side, however, Indian cricketer has been not been able to reap rewards for the side and as a result, he now has been excluded from the annual contract list. The left armer last played against Bangladesh in the T20 series, picking only 2 wickets in three matches.
