BCCI central contracts: Test specialists Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane likely face demotion - Report

Senior batters Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane are set to be demoted in BCCI's central contract list. The two senior players have been under the radar for quite sometime, owing to their poor scores in the red-ball format. Pujara's last Test ton came in early 2019 whereas the former vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane has not been able to score a hundred following his heroics in the MCG Test between India and Australia in the 2020/21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Rahane's 112 in the MCG Test remains his last Test century and, thus, the right-hander also lost the vice-captaincy post recently. Both Rahane and Pujara were offered a Grade A contract by BCCI in 2021, with a salary of Rs 5 crore each (INR 50 millions).

As per The Times of India, the two will be demoted to Grade B due to their low returns with the bat. The players in Grade B have a salary of Rs 3 crore each (INR 30 millions). In addition, as per the report, veteran pacers Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav are also likely to be dropped in the contract list.

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On the other hand, the likes of KL Rahul and wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant will not be promoted in the central contract list, the report further adds. While the two players feature in all forms of the game for Team India, they were likely to get a promotion to Grade A+ category. However, the report suggests that it may not happen so soon for them.

The Grade A+ category comprises three players, such as Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and speedster Jasprit Bumrah. Apart from the contract list, the Indian team for the forthcoming limited-overs series versus West Indies is also set to be announced very soon.

After the disastrous tour of South Africa, India will now gear up to host West Indies and Sri Lanka before the action moves to the IPL 2022 edition.