Iyer as ODI captain? BCCI says discussion not yet made
A day after reports suggested that the BCCI was considering Shreyas Iyer as the successor to Rohit Sharma in ODIs, the board has firmly dismissed such claims. On Thursday, a report in Dainik Jagran alleged that Iyer was the frontrunner to take over once Rohit decided on his future in the format. However, BCCI officials have clarified that no such discussion has taken place and instead highlighted Shubman Gill as the natural choice for the role. It is a period of transition for the Indian national cricket team, with a young coach and a team that has seen wholesale changes in the last 12 months as many of its veterans step away and make space for fresh blood. This has been particularly true when it comes to the leadership contingents of the team across the board, with the decisions regarding who the leader of India’s brave new world will be holding a lot of importance for its immediate future; this is not a string of decisions to be taken lightly. If the first half of the year was dedicated to question marks over the Test captaincy for India’s men’s national team, the second half has begun with questions regarding captaincy in ODI cricket. With rumours swirling regarding the oncoming retirement of incumbent ODI captain Rohit Sharma, a fair few names have been thrown around as candidates for limited-overs leadership in recent days. High amongst those is Shreyas Iyer, whose stock as a captain in white-ball cricket is at an all-time high after reaching two consecutive IPL finals with two different franchises. Iyer’s mixture of experience, leadership, and x-factor has made him a sudden crowd favourite to take over the captaincy mantle from Rohit, as and when Team India reaches that bridge. According to the report, a BCCI source told Hindustan Times that there is no reason why Shubman Gill should not be the frontrunner to lead India in ODIs when the time comes. The 25-year-old opener, who was recently appointed as India’s Test captain, also served as vice-captain in the Champions Trophy and is deputy to Suryakumar Yadav in the Asia Cup T20 squad. For now, India continues with a three-captain setup: Rohit Sharma in ODIs, Gill in Tests, and Suryakumar in T20Is. “He averages 59 in ODI cricket and is already the vice-captain of the team. There is no way someone who has recently been appointed Test captain, found some success and has age on his side should not take over leadership in ODI cricket, when the time comes,” stated the source. Whichever player is chosen will have to wait, with Rohit holding on to captaincy as India head to Australia for a three-match series this October.
Shreyas and Kishan back in the BCCI contract; Pant gets an upgrade
Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan are back on the BCCI’s central contracts list for 2024-25 after being left out the previous time. The top tier of the contracts (A+) has four players –Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Rabindra Jadeja. However Rohit, Kohli and Jadeja have retired from T-20Is after India won the T-20 World Cup in June last year. Rishav Pant has been promoted from Grade B to Grade A, which also has Mohammad Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya, and Mohammad Shami. Pant had previously been in Grade A – for the 2022-23 season but was moved down to Grade-B after not playing for over a year following a horrific car crash in December 2022. He returned to play IPL 2024 and has since been part of all formats for India – he’s played 10 Tests, one ODI, and 10 T20Is since then – and has returned to Grade A. Iyer, meanwhile, is part of Grade B along with Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Yashasvi Jaiswal and India T-20I captain Suryakumar Yadav, while Kishan has been added to Grade C. The new entrants in the contracts’ list – all currently in Grade C – are Nitish Reddy, Dhruv Jurel, Abhishek Sharma, Sarfaraz Khan, Akash Deep, Varun Chakrabarthy, and Harshit Rana. Shardul Thakur, KS Bharat, Avesh Khan, and Jitesh Sharma, who were all on the Grade C list – the lowest of the retainers – last year, have been dropped. The BCCI did not mention the amounts for the four contract categories, but the players in the A+ category are paid Rs 7 crore, the players contracted in A grade are given Rs 5 crore, the B-graded cricketers are allotted Rs 3 crore, and the cricketers listed in C-grade are paid Rs 1 crore.
