Iyer, Kishan win back India contracts as Pant´s deal upgraded

NEW DELHI: Batsmen Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan on Monday returned to India´s central contract list after a year´s absence, the cricket board said, while wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant was promoted to Grade A.

Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja were unchanged as the four players in the top A+ category as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced its central contracts for 2024-25.

Iyer entered at Grade B along with Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Yashasvi Jaiswal and India T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav. Kishan, a left-handed wicketkeeper-batsman, was in Grade C.

Both Iyer and Kishan were “not considered” for the annual contracts in the previous round after they skipped domestic tournaments. The BCCI did not stipulate pay for each category, but A+ contracts in 2023 carried an annual salary of $844,000, with A grade players earning $603,000.

India contracted players for 2024-25:

Category A+: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja

Category A: Mohammed Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya, Mohammed Shami, Rishabh Pant

Category B: Suryakumar Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer

Category C: Rinku Singh, Tilak Varma, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, Washington Sundar, Mukesh Kumar, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Rajat Patidar, Dhruv Jurel, Sarfaraz Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ishan Kishan, Abhishek Sharma, Akash Deep, Varun Chakravarthy, Harshit Rana