4 Indian players who are missing from the BCCI annual contract list

The Board of Control for Cricket (BCCI) in India announced the list of annual contracts for the Indian Men’s cricket team for the period [October 2019-September 2020]. The players, as always, were divided into four distinct groups- A+, A, B, and C. Indian captain Virat Kohli, white-ball vice-captain Rohit Sharma, and the No.1 ranked ODI bowler in the world Jasprit Bumrah are the only three players who have been awarded the A+ contracts [Rs 7 Crore].

Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane,  the ever-so-reliable Cheteshwar Pujara, openers KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant and the fast bowling duo of Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma have been awarded with the Grade A contracts [Rs 5 Crore]

Wriddhiman Saha, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Hardik Pandya, and Mayank Agarwal have been bracketed under the Grade B pay scale of Rs 3 Crore while likes of Kedar Jadhav, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Manish Pandey, Hanuma Vihari, Shardul Thakur, Shreyas Iyer, and Washington Sundar are a part of Grade C contract [Rs 1 Crore].

So, who are the ones who missed out on an elusive contract? Here are the 4 missing players from player contracts:

4. Khaleel Ahmed

Khaleel Ahmed was touted as India’s problems as far as the paucity of the left-arm pacers in their white-ball set-up is concerned when he made his debut for the national side against Hong Kong during the 2018 Asia Cup. He even travelled with India during their tour of Australia in 2018 where he featured in the T20I series, but could only muster 3 wickets at an average of 38.67. The southpaw had a slightly better outing during the T20Is in New Zealand where he claimed 4 wickets at an average of 30.

But, his economy rate and the inconsistency in line and length proved to be a major issue and the left-hander was dropped from the T20I series at home against the Aussies. Ahmed returned for the T20I series in the West Indies but could only manage a solitary wicket. Ahmed’s final game came during the Bangladesh series where he swatted mercilessly and was dropped thereafter.

With the likes of Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur making the most of their opportunities, Ahmed has dropped down substantially in the pegging order, and it was reflected when his name went missing in the annual contract-retainer list.