Mumbai: MS Dhoni had made himself unavailable for selection since the end of World Cup 2019, and on Thursday the Indian cricket board left the former World Cup-winning captain out of its Annual Player Contracts for the 2019-20 season.
The development has raised fresh doubts on the future of the wicket-keeper batsman who has not featured in an international match since the World Cup semifinal loss to New Zealand last year.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Thursday announced central contracts for players for the 2019-20 season.
India skipper Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Jasprit Bumrah have been retained in the highest A+ bracket of Rs 7 crore. Meanwhile, KL Rahul has been upgraded from B grade to A.
Grade A+ (7 Cr): Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah.
Grade A (5 Cr): Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, K L Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav, Rishabh Pant.
Grade B (3 Cr): Wriddhiman Saha, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal.
Grade C (1 Cr): Kedar Jadhav, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Manish Pandey, Hanuma Vihari, Shardul Thakur, Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar.