Jonny Bairstow misses out on ECB Test contract; Crawley, Sibley and Pope included

09/30/2020

Once considered as one of the first names on the red-ball contract list, Jonny Bairstow finds him just appearing as a white-ball specialist in the setup. On the other hand, the likes of Zak Crawley, Dominic Sibley and Ollie Pope have earned themselves a Test contract after their good show last year.

On Wednesday, England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have finally released the list of ECB’s annually contracted players, in both Test format and in the white-ball formats. In the red-ball format, the board omitted Jonny Bairstow’s name from the list, with Jos Buttler appearing as the first-choice keeper in the longest format.

In equal measures, the host of names that have earned the plaudits in the last 12 months have found themselves a place in the annually contracted list. Middle-order batsmen - Zak Crawley, Dominic Sibley and Ollie Pope have earned their annual contract in the longest format, over their stunning display in the Test series, starting from South Africa till the recently-concluded series against Pakistan.

The pace unit, consisting of James Anderson, Jofra Archer, Stuart Broad and Chris Woakes find themselves a place on the contracted list. Meanwhile, in the white-ball format, Joe Denly misses out, after losing his place in the shortest format of the game to Sam Billings. Dominic Bess, Chris Jordan, Dawid Malan and Jack Leach have all received incremental contracts after their performance throughout the course of the cricketing summer.

In the pace bowling development contract, Saqib Mahmood, Olly Stone and Craig Overton have all found themselves a place after their show in the domestic season, which has impressed the selectors.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏏 We have confirmed the award of Central Contracts for England Men's Test and White Ball cricket for 2020/21.
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) September 30, 2020

Test Central Contracts

James Anderson (Lancashire), Jofra Archer (Sussex), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Rory Burns (Surrey), Jos Buttler (Lancashire), Zak Crawley (Kent), Sam Curran (Surrey), Ollie Pope (Surrey), Joe Root (Yorkshire), Dom Sibley (Warwickshire), Ben Stokes (Durham), Chris Woakes (Warwickshire).

White Ball Central Contracts

Moeen Ali (Worcestershire), Jofra Archer (Sussex), Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire), Jos Buttler (Lancashire), Tom Curran (Surrey), Eoin Morgan (Middlesex), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire), Joe Root (Yorkshire), Jason Roy (Surrey), Ben Stokes (Durham), Chris Woakes (Warwickshire), Mark Wood (Durham).

Increment Contracts

Dom Bess (Somerset), Chris Jordan (Sussex), Dawid Malan (Yorkshire), Jack Leach (Somerset)

Pace Bowling Development Contracts

Saqib Mahmood (Lancashire), Craig Overton (Somerset), Olly Stone (Warwickshire)