Well, this one is a really heartening news for the millions of the fans of Bhuvneshwar Kumar as he has been lifted to the Elite group contract of the BCCI.
The other privileged players of Elite list include Dhoni, Kohli, Raina and R Ashwin. On a personal note, I feel very happy for Bhuvneshwar as he is going to fill in the place of Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar. However, BCCI today dropped veterans Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh from their annual ‘Graded Retainership’. Also, Harbhajan Singh, Sehwag and Zaheer Khan have been ignored.
Bhuvneshwar has earned this deserving entry into the top bracket after his lion-hearted performances in England. He has been rewarded for maintaining consistency over a period of time. This also got him the ‘Cricketer of the Year’ award from BCCI.
The likes of Murali Vijay, Ravindra Jadeja, Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma have all remained in Group B retainership while Ambati Rayudu, after his good show in ODIs, has been promoted to group B. Pacer Mohammed Shami has also been promoted to group B. Ajinkya Rahane, for his good show in a all formats, has also been inducted in group B.
Jammu and Kashmir all-rounder Parveez Rasool, has been included into Group C, while Bengal batsman Manoj Tiwary, having made his ODI return against Bangladesh, is in the same bracket as well. Pankaj Singh, after his Test match debut in England, is also in group C with Mohit Sharma and Varun Aaron.
Hope these new contracts will prove to be a morale booster.