End of road for MS Dhoni? Former Indian skipper dropped by BCCI from annual contract list

In a big surprise and in what could potentially be the end of the road for Mahendra Singh Dhoni in Team India in all formats, the former Indian skipper has been dropped from the 27-member list of central contract awardees for the 2019-20 season by the BCCI. The new list hints that the board is looking at Rishabh Pant and Wriddhiman Saha as wicketkeepers in the limited overs format and Test matches, respectively. While Pant has been handed over a Grade A contract, Saha finds his name in the Grade B list.

MS Dhoni, meanwhile hasn't played for India since team's loss to New Zealand in last year's ODI World Cup semi-final. He held an 'A' category contract in the previous cycle. Despite his absence from the side, coach Ravi Shastri had hinted that Dhoni can make a comeback for this year's T-20 World Cup if he manages a good IPL.

BCCI Central Contracts for 2019-20 full list:

Grade A+ (INR 7 cr): Virat Kohli Rohit Sharma Jasprit Bumrah

Grade A (INR 5 cr): Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Mohd. Shami, Ishant Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav, Rishabh Pant

Grade B (INR 3 cr): Wriddhiman Saha, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal

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Grade C (INR 1 cr): Kedar Jadhav, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Manish Pandey, Hanuma Vihari, Shardul Thakur, Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar

In Dhoni's absence, Rishabh Pant has emerged as the first choice wicketkeeper for Team India, with the management looking at KL Rahul as his backup in the limited overs format. The latter kept wickets in the first ODI against Australia after Pant had to leave the field due to concussion. The selectors didn't announce a replacement for the Delhi player confirming that Rahul will keep wickets in the remaining matches.