Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja
Former England captain Michael Vaughan was left disappointed after Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja was left in Grade A of BCCI's central contracts for 2020-21, released by the Indian board on Friday.
Jadeja, who is an all-format player for the Indian team, joined nine other teammates in the grade category which includes players like Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, and Ravichandran Ashwin.
Only three players - Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Jasprit Bumrah - were included in the Grade A+ category by the BCCI.
Following the release, Vaughan took to Twitter to write, "Disgrace ... he should be on the biggest behind Virat ..."
Michael Vaughan's tweet on Jadeja
A total of 28 cricketers were awarded central contracts in four categories on Thursday.
At this moment in Indian cricket, there are only three certainties across formats and the scenario hasn't changed with Kohli, Rohit and Bumrah being the elite of elites.
All-rounder Pandya is one of the notable promotions to Grade A, which is worth Rs 5 crore, despite the fact that he endured a back injury which has prevented him from bowling for much of the last year. He was in Grade B last year
Rookies Shubman Gill and Mohammed Siraj have got their maiden central contracts worth Rs 1 crore in grade C while Shardul Thakur has been elevated to group B.
The trio has been rewarded for lion-hearted performances during India's historic Test triumph in Australia this year.
Among the demotions, pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar has dropped to Grade B, which is worth Rs 3 crore, while Kedar Jadhav has been dropped for good.
Bhuvneshwar's demotion from A to B comes in the wake of prolonged absences due to different injuries and he is no longer an all-format regular.
The list of BCCI's annual contracts:
GRADE A+ (Rs 7 crore): Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah.
GRADE A (Rs 5 crore): R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya.
GRADE B (Rs 3 crore): Wriddhiman Saha, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shardul Thakur, Mayank Agarwal.
GRADE C (Rs 1 crore): Kuldeep Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Shubman Gill, Hanuma Vihari , Axar Patel, Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Siraj.
(with PTI inputs)
