India skipper Virat Kohli, ace willower  Rohit Sharma and top pacer Jasprit Bumrah retained their place in the Rs 7 crore/ 70 million rupees worth top tier while all-rounder Hardik Pandya got a promotion in the new BCCI annual contracts for the senior men’s team.

The annual player retainership 2020-21, announced on Thursday by the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the sport's richest body, saw 28 cricketers make the cut in the four-tier contract system with the national cricket board. 

While the trio of Kohli, Rohit and Bumrah were named yet again in the most sought A+ grade, ten players found a place in Grade A (Rs 5 crore), five got the Grade B contract (Rs 3 crore), while ten cricketers were clubbed in the Grade C bracket (Rs 1 crore).

Pandya, who was in Grade B last year, was  elevated to Grade A, despite an injury-plagued year, as the board pinned hope on him of being one of the mainstays of the side in the coming T20  World Cup.

Shardul Thakur has also moved up to Grade B, but pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been downgraded one rung from Grade A to Grade B. Kuldip Yadav has got a double demotion from Grade A to C.

Talented youngsters Shubman Gill and Mohammed Siraj have been rewarded with their maiden induction in the contracted players’ list, but Kedar Jadhav has been axed from the list.

Following is the list:

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.

(SAM)