Abhishek Sharma, Nitish Reddy, Harshit Rana likely to get BCCI's central contract

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Abhishek Sharma, Nitish Reddy, Harshit Rana likely to get BCCI's central contract

by Vijay Tagore • Last updated on

Abhishek Sharma is one of the finest cricketers in world cricket as well as the ongoing IPL currently © BCCI

The much-awaited central contracts for the Indian team will be released soon and barring a few, there are unlikely to be too many surprises in the list. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) may make some concessions for a few promising players who may not totally qualify to earn the central retainership.

Top of the list could be Abhishek Sharma, the promising left-handed batter from the Punjab and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) teams. He is one of the finest cricketers in world cricket as well as the ongoing IPL currently. He is expected to be included in Grade C, that assures annual retainership of INR 1 crore.

As per the BCCI standard policy, "athletes who meet the criteria of playing a minimum of three Tests or eight ODIs or 10 T20Is within the specified period will automatically be included in Grade C on a pro-rata basis." Abhishek has featured in 17 T20Is in all and has played in 12 T20Is in the specified period, which is generally from October to September.

Apart from Abhishek (24), Nitish Reddy is also in the running to be part of the central contracts list. The 21-year-old Andhra all-rounder has played five Tests and four T20Is and should qualify to be in the list by virtue of having played the required number of Tests. For the record, he was part of all five Tests in the BGT series Down Under.

Similarly, there is a chance that Harshit Rana will also be included. Rana has played two Tests, five ODIs and one T20I and does not fulfil the criteria in any of the three formats separately. But cumulatively he has played a sufficient number of games to be in the list.

As previously reported, Varun Chakaravarthy (four ODIs and 18 T20Is) too should come into the list, as well as Shreyas Iyer, who was one of the star performers in the just-concluded Champions Trophy. Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja will continue to be A+ category and it is unlikely that there will be too many changes to the gradings - give or take two-three names.

The Contracts are expected to be announced in a couple of days along with the changes to the support staff of the Indian teams. The decisions are understood to have been taken recently.

© Cricbuzz

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