Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan have returned to the Board of Control for Cricket in India's central contract list for the national men's team, announced by the board on Monday. Seven players have been handed the BCCI central contract for the first time.
BCCI CONTRACTS
Pant promoted, Iyer and Kishan return as BCCI announce central contracts
Ishan and Shreyas were left out of the central contracts last year © BCCI
The 34-player list has retained the earlier format, with players being slotted into four categories - A+, A, B and C. Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah continue to be retained in the A+ category.
In the 'A' category, has a new inclusion with Rishabh Pant finding an escalation. The wicketkeeper, who was in Category B in last season's contract, has been clubbed alongside Mohammed Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya and Mohammed Shami. R Ashwin is the only exclusion from category A since he retired from international cricket earlier this year.
Iyer, who was found a place again in the contract list, has been slotted in Category B, which apart from Pant, retains the same look, with Suryakumar Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Yashasvi Jaiswal finding a place.
Category C is where the most shuffle has happened. Shivam Dube, Jitesh Sharma, KS Bharath and Avesh Khan - who were in Category C last season - have been left out of the contract list altogether. Meanwhile,