Why Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal didn't make it to BCCI's contract list?

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has published the latest record of National contracts assigned to Indian cricketers. Emerging players like the Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant has been rewarded highly for his consistent performance across formats. While the wicketkeeper-batsman from Delhi has been rewarded with a Grade A contract, senior Indian batsman Shikhar Dhawan has been downgraded from the elite A-plus category.

Besides the opener, veteran pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar has also been dropped from the exclusive A-plus division with Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah now being the only three cricketers left in the topmost category. While left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed and batsman Hanuma Vihari are new candidates in the C category, two senior cricketers – Murali Vijay and Suresh Raina, have been released from the contract lists after being assigned A and C group in last year’s draft.

However, when fans found out that the likes of Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal weren’t included in any of the grades, it was rather shocking. After an impressive exhibition of play in the 11th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Shaw was called to make his Test debut for India. Mayank, on the other hand, made a remarkable Test debut in the series in Australia last year. He scored a significant fifty on his debut.  Before that, he had set India’s domestic circuit on fire with a string of excellent performances.

Reason for non-inclusion of Shaw and Mayank

However, despite these impressive performances, the Prithvi Mayank duo, as well as Vijay Shankar did not meet the criteria of having played either three Tests or eight ODIs – which is mandatory for a BCCI contract. While Shaw and Agarwal have both represented India in a couple of Tests matches each, the 28-year-old Vijay Shankar has featured in six ODI games. Shaw and Mayank would be given a C category contract as soon as they play their next Test, while Shankar will have to play two more ODIs to be eligible for the same contract.

Here’s the central contract list of the BCCI

A-PLUS: Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah

A: MS Dhoni, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Shikhar Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ajinkya Rahane

B: KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal.

C: Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, Ambati Rayudu, Manish Pandey, Hanuma Vihari, Khaleel Ahmed, Wriddhiman Saha.

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