Ravindra Jadeja’s name should be there in the A+ category in central contracts, opines Aakash Chopra

BCCI announced the central contracts list for the 2021-22 cycle and there were many ups and downs from multiple players in the contracts. However, the highest category in the contracts - A+ remains unchanged with inclusion of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah. Category A included only five players whereas there were 10 players in this category for the previous cycle. The five players in the A category are Ravindra Jadeja, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Ravichandran Ashwin and Mohammed Shami. 

Two senior batsmen in the Test squad who recently lost their place due to poor form, Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara have been dropped to category B. Hardik Pandya, Shikhar Dhawan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar have been handed Grade C contracts.  

Ravindra Jadeja has massively improved his batting in the last couple of years. He scored unbeaten 175 against Sri Lanka recently and took a five wicket haul in the Mohali Test. Reflecting on the central contracts list, former India cricketer Aakash Chopra believes that Ravindra Jadeja should be included in A+ category due to his recent performances.

“The category where there was no change is the A+ category, were Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Jasprit Bumrah are there. But why not Ravindra Jadeja? I think Jadeja's name should be there in that list. In the next central contract list, I believe Jadeja's name will be there in that category because he has performed so brilliantly,” Chopra said in his Youtube Video.

Rishabh Pant has played some crucial knocks in recent times for the team. He has 1831 Test runs from 29 matches at 40.68. And has 715 ODI runs with an average of 32.50. He played some pretty decent knocks in the recent series against West Indies and also scored 96 runs in the first Test against Sri Lanka. KL Rahul has been also the pillar of the Indian batting unit. Chopra said that Pant and Rahul should also be added in the A+ category. 

“Currently, Jadeja is in Grade A. In the next list, I think both Jadeja and KL Rahul will be in the A+ category. Rishabh Pant is going to be a massive contender. He is the vice-captain of the team. All of them should be pushed to A+ category,” he stated.