Grade C (50 lakhs): Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, Amit Mishra, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Karun Nair, Kedar Jadhav, Ashish Nehra, Parthiv Patel, Jayant Yadav, Yuzavendra Chahal, Dhawal Kulkarni, Rishab Pant, Mandeep Singh, Shardul Thakur

If a player who is not in central contract plays 3 matches for India then he is inducted into Grade C. Apart from the contract price, every cricketer gets match fees of 15 lakhs for the test, 7 lakh for ODI and 3 lakh for T20I. If a player announces retirement he is automatically omitted from the list.

Changes likely to be made next year:

Next year Rohit Sharma (Grade B), Shikhar Dhawan (Grade C), Hardik Pandya (Grade C) and Bumrah (Grade B) are likely to get promoted by one grade for their good performances this year. Whereas Yuvraj Singh (Grade B), Ishant Sharma (Grade B) in all likelihood might face relegation. Few Grade C cricketers like Ambati Rayudu, Amit Mishra, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jayant Yadav, Mandeep Singh who haven”t played for India for a while might miss out.

Senior cricketers like Gambhir, Harbhajan, Irfan and Yusuf Pathan and Raina are currently out of contracts. Their Ranji performances are key in their chances of getting contracts.

– by Atharva Apte