India’s rising stars Dhruv Jurel and Sarfaraz Khan were inducted into the BCCI’s annual central contract list on Monday, March 18. Both youngsters made their international debut during the recent Test series against England and met the BCCI’s criteria to earn a central contract after playing the Dharamsala Test.

According to the PTI, both cricketers were drafted in Grade C of the central contract list during the BCCI Apex Council meeting on Monday.

The BCCI announced the central contracts to 30 players on February 28, including 15 players in the Grade C category. The BCCI specifically mentioned that both Jurel and Srafaraza will be officially inducted into the list if they feature in the fifth Test matches against England in Dharamsala. 

Sarfaraz registered three quick fifties in five Test innings against England to make an instant impact. Jurel scored a crucial 90 and 39* in the fourth Test against England in Rajkot to guide India to a series win and to earn a Player of the Match award as well.

“Dhruv Jurel and Sarfaraz Khan, having played 2 Test matches so far, will be inducted into Grade C if they participate in the Dharamsala Test Match, i.e., the 5th Test of the ongoing series against England,” the BCCI statement said on February 28. “Please note that Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were not considered for the annual contracts in this round of recommendations. The BCCI has recommended that all athletes give precedence to participating in domestic cricket during periods when they are not representing the national team.”

BCCI’s updated annual central contract list:

Grade A+ (4 Athletes): Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja.

Grade A (6 Athletes): Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammaed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya.

Grade B (5 Athletes): Surya Kumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Yashasvi Jaiswal.

Grade C (17 Athletes): Rinku Singh, Tilak Verma, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shardul Thakur, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, Jitesh Sharma, Washington Sundar, Mukesh Kumar, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, KS Bharat, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, Rajat Patidar, Dhruv Jurel, Sarfaraz Khan.