Shikhar Dhawan, who has been struggling for runs lately, has been dropped from the A+ category along with pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the BCCI annual player contracts (for the period October 2018-September 2019) announced late on Thursday evening.

The A+ category now features only captain Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah, who’s been India’s best bowler in pretty much all the three formats. The trio get a yearly retainer fee of Rs seven crore.

Both Dhawan and Bhuvneshwar are now in the A (Rs five crore) category, which also features wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant. Not being part of the contracted players’ list in 2017-18, Pant scored two centuries and as many half-centuries in the longest format, averaging close to 50 (49.71 to be precise) that led to his elevation.

Unfortunately, Wriddhiman Saha, whose return to the national team has become even tougher thanks to his injury issues and Pant’s performances, has dropped down to C category from A with his yearly retainer fee going straight down to Rs one crore.

Pacer Mohammed Shami’s consistency in both Tests and ODIs has propelled him to the A category from Grade B, while Ishant Sharma too has moved up from B to A.

Central contracts

Grade A+ (Rs 7 crore)

1. Virat Kohli
2. Rohit Sharma
3. Jasprit Bumrah

Grade A (Rs 5 crore)

1. Ravichandran Ashwin
2. Ravindra Jadeja
3. Bhuvneshwar Kumar
4. Cheteshwar Pujara
5. Ajinkya Rahane
6. MS Dhoni
7. Shikhar Dhawan
8. Mohammed Shami
9. Ishant Sharma
10. Kuldeep Yadav
11. Rishabh Pant

Grade B (Rs 3 crore)

1. KL Rahul
2. Umesh Yadav
3. Yuzvendra Chahal
4. Hardik Pandya

Grade C (Rs 1 crore)

1. Kedar Jadhav
2. Dinesh Karthik
3. Ambati Rayudu
4. Manish Pandey
5. Hanuma Vihari
6. Khaleel Ahmed
7. Wriddhiman Saha