If the Board of Control for Cricket's Annual Contract released on Thursday is any indication, MS Dhoni's international future is surely coming to an end. The 2011 World Cup-winning Dhoni is not among the 27 players who got four grades of contracts -- A+ (7 crore a year), A (5 crore), B (3 crore) and C (1 crore).
Jasprit Bumrah has been rewarded for his top form this season. He figures alongside Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.
Sunil Gavaskar has questioned MS Dhoni's long absence from competitive cricket. Image Courtesy: BCCI
Dhoni has been in the news lately as speculation on his international future continues to be a subject of much discussion. National head coach Ravi Shastri hinted that Dhoni's ODI career was virtually over and a call on T20s would be taken on the basis of his performance in the IPL 2020.
Sunil Gavaskar also questioned Dhoni's long absence from competitive cricket. With several cricketers jostling for spots in an Indian squad where most places are automatically taken, Gavaskar was not sure if Dhoni was indeed keen to play for the country any more. The BCCI contracts looks like an affirmation.
Bumrah has been India's leading bowler, especially in the shorter formats. To leapfrog a Mohammed Shamior an Ishant Sharma into the topmost tier is a clear sign that the BCCI is looking at the 26-year-old as the man who will take Indian pace to the next level.
The full list:
The four grades: Grade A+ - 7 crore annually; Grade A - 5 crore; Grade B - 3 crore; Grade C - 1 Crore
In A+ group: Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah
In A group: Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, K L Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav, Rishabh Pant.
In B group: Wriddhiman Saha, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal
In C group: Kedar Jadhav, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Manish Pandey, Hanuma Vihari, Shardul Thakur, Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar
