Why Sarfaraz Khan and Dhruv Jurel have not been handed BCCI annual contracts 2023-24 despite impressing in Tests?

Image Source : GETTY Sarfaraz Khan and Dhruv Jurel.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Wednesday announced the annual player retainership contracts for 2023-24 and made some notable changes to it. The biggest talking point of the contract announcement is the removal of Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan from the player retainership list. Ishan held Grade C as per the previous contract, while Iyer was in Grade B of it. Both have been removed from any of the contracts now.

Notably, the Indian Board has given contracts to 30 players, a rise of four from the previous player retainership when 26 players were part in 2022-23. Notably, Sarfaraz Khan and Dhruv Jurel, both of whom recently made impressive debuts for India, have not been picked in any of the four grades – A+, A, B and C.

Why Sarfaraz and Jurel have not been handed any contract?

The BCCI mentioned that athletes who meet the criteria of playing at least three Tests, eight ODIs or ten T20Is within a specified time will be included automatically in Grade C and reasoned the absence of Sarfaraz and Jurel.

“Additionally, athletes who meet the criteria of playing a minimum of 3 Tests or 8 ODIs or 10 T20Is within the specified period will automatically be included in Grade C on a pro-rata basis. For instance, Dhruv Jurel and Sarfaraz Khan, having played 2 Test matches so far, will be inducted into Grade C if they participate in the Dharamsala Test Match, i.e., the 5th Test of the ongoing series against England,” BCCI wrote in a statement while announcing the retainership contracts.

Notably, Rajat Patidar has been able to make it to the contract list as he has played three Tests for India in the ongoing Test series vs England.

Here is a list of all the players who are part of Grade C:

Rinku Singh, Tilak Verma, Ruturaj Gaekwad, Shardul Thakur, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, Jitesh Sharma, Washington Sundar, Mukesh Kumar, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, KS Bharat, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan and Rajat Patidar