Saba Karim has opined on the fact that some of the senior Indian players’ are likely to get demoted to the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) annual contract after their poor performances over the last year. Certain reports suggested that the likes of Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ishant Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha and Bhuvneshwar Kumar may be demoted in the central contracts for October 2021-September 2022 as well.

During a discussion on India News, Saba Karim said: “This [Contract system] does two things from the BCCI’s side. You are promoted as an appreciation if you have done well last year or you are demoted if the selectors feel you have not performed. If we keep these criteria, it’s clear their performance has not been good last year.”

Saba Karim again explained: “The expectations from them have gone down slightly and that is why we are talking about this demotion. But I feel this is also a silver lining for these players. If they are in Grade C, it means the selectors might still think about them in the coming year. It’s not that they have been totally sidelined.”

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Meanwhile, Rahane, Pujara and Bhuvneshwar were out of form in the recent Indian tour of South Africa whereas Ishant and Saha did not get a game in the series. Saba Karim also shared his views on Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul’s likely promotion to the A+ grade.

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“I feel A+ is a very exclusive club. Here I feel we are missing one player, that is Jadeja. He is a player who plays all three formats, he gives match-winning contributions and he has huge importance. Along with him, Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul are also there. But maybe this year only Jadeja might get an entry in A+ and Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul might be in Grade A. Other than that, I feel players like Mohammed Siraj, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan and Deepak Chahar should be given a promotion,” Saba Karim concluded.

Notably, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah are the three players who currently have Grade A+ status in the BCCI’s annual contracts.