The Board of Control for Cricket in India on Thursday announced the annual player contracts for Team India (senior men) for the period from October 2020 to September 2021.
There were four grades announced, as per usual, with Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah being retained in the top tier A+ grade. While Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal and Bhuvneshwar Kumar received a downgrade from their previous tiers, Hardik Pandya climbed to Grade A and Shardul Thakur moved up a rung to Grade B.
Shubman Gill, Axar Patel and Mohammed Siraj were the new entrants, while Manish Pandey and Kedar Jadhav were left out from the previous cycle.
A total of 28 players have been given annual contracts by the BCCI.
Payment structure for senior men's team
| Period | Grade A + | Grade A | Grade B | Grade C |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 2020 to Sept 2021 | INR 7 Cr | INR 5 Cr | INR 3 Cr | INR 1 Cr |
BCCI player contracts
| Grade A+ | Grade A | Grade B | Grade C |
|---|---|---|---|
| Virat Kohli | R Ashwin | Wriddhiman Saha | Kuldeep Yadav |
| Rohit Sharma | Ravindra Jadeja | Umesh Yadav | Navdeep Saini |
| Jasprit Bumrah | Cheteshwar Pujara | Bhuvneshwar Kumar | Deepak Chahar |
| Ajinkya Rahane | Shardul Thakur | Shubman Gill | |
| Shikhar Dhawan | Mayank Agarwal | Hanuma Vihari | |
| KL Rahul | Axar Patel | ||
| Mohammed Shami | Shreyas Iyer | ||
| Ishant Sharma | Washington Sundar | ||
| Rishabh Pant | Yuzvendra Chahal | ||
| Hardik Pandya | Mohammed Siraj |
Changes from October 2019 to September 2020:
- Hardik up to Grade A from B
- Bhuvneshwar down to Grade B from A
- Kuldeep down to Grade C from A
- Chahal down to Grade C from B
- Shardul from Grade C to B
- Added at Grade C level: Gill, Axar, Siraj
- Out of the contracts: Kedar, Manish