(Cricket News) India batters Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan has been excluded from the BCCI central contracts for the this term of recommendations. Iyer was part of the Grade B list last season while Kishan had a Grade C contract.

Ishan has been away from action, after he withdrew from India’s test squad ahead of the test series against South Africa due to personal reasons, while Iyer on the other hand was dropped from the squad after his poor run in the red ball format. BCCI recommended all the athletes to be a part of their domestic side, if they are fit and not at the NCA. However, Ishan and Iyer were nowhere to be seen playing for Jharkhand and Mumbai respectively in the Ranji trophy. Although Iyer now is expected to play for Mumbai in the Semi Finals.

“Please note that Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were not considered for the annual contracts in this round of recommendations,” the BCCI stated in a media release, adding: “The BCCI has recommended that all athletes give precedence to participating in domestic cricket during periods when they are not representing the national team.”

On the other hand KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Mohammed Siraj have been elevated to the Grade A category while Rishabh Pant, who missed more than year recovering from a fatal road accident, finds himself in Grade B. Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja have been retained in the A+ category, while Hardik, Ashwin and Shami remains in the Grade A contract.

Kuldeep Yadav has also been elevated to Grade B, whereas Axar Patel has been moved down to Grade B. Yashashvi Jaiswal gets a central contract and finds himself on Grade B. SKY has been retained at Grade B. Shikhar Dhawan, Chahal and Umesh have not found a contract for themselves. 15 players, including 10 new inclusions has been listed in the Grade C category

The annual contracts will be effective from 1st October 2023 to 30th September 2024. Players who will play 3 tests, 8 ODIs or 10 T20Is during this period will be automatically added to the Grade C of the BCCI Central contracts on Pro-rata basis.

List of contracted players for 2023-24:

Grade A+: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja.

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

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

Grade C: Rinku Singh, Tilak Verma, Ruturaj Gaekwad, 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.

Fast Bowling contracts: Akash Deep, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Umran Malik, Yash Dayal and Vidwath Kaverappa.

ALSO READ : Devon Conway to miss first Test against Australia