During the last cycle of the BCCI central contracts, the board had introduced something called the ‘fast bowling contracts’, which were offered to upcoming pacers — Umran Malik, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Yash Dayal, Vidwath Kavderappa, and Akash Deep. But when the new contracts for 2024-25 were announced on Monday, there was no mention of these ‘fast bowling contract’.
No Fast-Bowling Contracts by BCCI
It clearly means that the BCCI has done away with them. While pacer Akash Deep, who was a member of the Indian Test team for the Australia tour, was promoted to Grade C, the others were just overlooked for the contract. Although, it isn’t mentioned clearly in the BCCI release, but then that is the only conclusion one can draw, given Akash Deep was promoted to grade C.
Akash Deep in Grade C
Some of the new entrants in grade C were – Nitish Kumar Reddy, who went on to score a maiden ton in Australia, Dhruv Jurel, Sarfaraz Khan, Ishan Kishan and Varun Chakravarthy. But the biggest surprise of them all was Rishabh Pant being handed out a Grade A contract, while Axar Patel was kept in Grade B.
What has surprised many is the inclusion of Ishan Kishan, who hasn’t played a single game for India since 2023. Not that his performance has been commendable in the domestic circuit or the IPL this year.
Full List of BCCI Central Contracts 2024-25
| Grade | Player |
| A+ | Virat Kohli |
| Ravindra Jadeja | |
| Rohit Sharma | |
| Jasprit Bumrah | |
| Grade A | Rishabh Pant |
| Mohammed Shami | |
| Mohammed Siraj | |
| KL Rahul | |
| Shubman Gill | |
| Hardik Pandya | |
| Grade B | Suryakumar Yadav |
| Kuldeep Yadav | |
| Axar Patel | |
| Shreyas Iyer | |
| Yashasvi Jaiswal | |
| Grade 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 |
