Indian Cricket Board terminates Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer’s central contracts; complete list of players with grades

Speculations were right about the exclusion of the duo from the Indian Cricket Board contract list. Notably, Ishan Kishan, who took a mid-tour break during India’s tour of South Africa, was subsequently left out of the T20I series against Afghanistan and the Test series against England. However, India’s head coach, Rahul Dravid, emphasised the importance of Ishan Kishan playing in some form of the game to secure a national team comeback. However, he continued to miss Ranji Trophy matches for his state team, Jharkhand. Meanwhile, Shreyas Iyer recently withdrew from a Ranji Trophy match for Mumbai, citing a back issue.

Meanwhile, Rinku Singh and Tilak Varma secured spots on the central contract list. Both players have been placed in Grade C, which consists of 15 players. Ruturaj Gaikwad and Shivam Dube, who staged impressive comebacks for the Indian T20I team, are also part of this category. Furthermore, Jitesh Sharma, who filled in for Ishan Kishan in the Indian T20I team, finds a place in the ‘C’ list.

Board has revealed the criteria to be in the central contract grade C

The Indian Cricket Board has revealed the criteria to be in the central contract grade C. Moreover, the sources have ordered players to play first-class games if they are not playing international games.

“Additionally, 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 2 Test matches so far, will be inducted into Grade C if they participate in the Dharamsala Test Match, i.e., the 5th Test of the ongoing series against England,” an Indian Cricket Board released said.

“The Board has recommended that all athletes give precedence to participating in domestic cricket during periods when they are not representing the national team,” the sources added further.

Full list of Indian Cricket Board contracts players:

Grade A+ (4 Athletes)

Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja.

Grade A (6 Athletes)

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

Grade B (5 Athletes)

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

Grade C (15 Athletes)

Rinku Singh, Tilak Verma, Ruturaj Gaikwad, 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.