Iyer and Ishan have not been in action in domestic cricket.

Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan have both been excluded from the 30-member list of centrally contracted players announced by the BCCI on Wednesday (February 28). KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Mohammed Siraj have been elevated to the Grade A category while Rishabh Pant, who missed the majority of the season recovering from a road accident, finds himself in Grade B.

Iyer was part of the Grade B list last season while Kishan had a Grade C contract. "Please note that Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were not considered for the annual contracts in this round of recommendations," the BCCI stated in a media release, adding: "The BCCI has recommended that all athletes give precedence to participating in domestic cricket during periods when they are not representing the national team."

Hardik Pandya, R Ashwin and Mohammed Shami have been retained in Grade A while Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja have been retained in the A+ category.

Axar Patel, who had a Grade A contract last season, has been moved to Grade B. Kuldeep Yadav has been elevated from Grade C to B while Yashasvi Jaiswal, a newly contracted player, finds himself in Grade B as well. Suryakumar Yadav is the only player in the Grade B category from the previous season to be retained in the same group. Cheteshwar Pujara doesn't find a contract this season, having been in Grade B in the previous one.

As many as 15 players have been named in the Grade C category, an increase from the previous season's 11. Among them, 10 are new inclusions - Rinku Singh, Tilak Verma, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, Jitesh Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan and Rajat Patidar. The likes of Shardul Thakur, Washington Sundar, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh and KS Bharat have been retained in Grade C while Umesh Yadav, Shikhar Dhawan, Deepak Hooda and Yuzvendra Chahal have been excluded.

The annual contracts for the 2023-24 season will be applicable from October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024. Players who feature in a minimum of 3 Tests or 8 ODIs or 10 T20Is within this period will be automatically included in the Grade C category on a pro-rata basis. So if Dhruv Jurel and Sarfaraz Khan, who have played two Tests against England, feature in the Dharamsala Test then they will make it to the Grade C list.

The selection committee has also recommended new category - Fast Bowling contracts - in which Akash Deep, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Umran Malik, Yash Dayal and Vidwath Kaverappa have been included.

List of contracted players for 2023-24:

Grade A+: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja.

Grade A: R Ashwin, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya.

Grade B: Surya Kumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Yashasvi Jaiswal.

Grade C: Rinku Singh, Tilak Verma, Ruturaj Gaekwad, Shardul Thakur, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, Jitesh Sharma, Washington Sundar, Mukesh Kumar, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, KS Bharat, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan and Rajat Patidar.