Australia vs India 2018-19: Rishabh Pant Likely to be Offered a Central Contract by BCCI

The young Indian National Cricket team wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant is likely to get a central contract from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) following his stellar show with the bat in the fourth Test against Australia at Sydney. As per reports in PTI, Pant will return to the contract; however, the category is still in the process of deciding. As per the contract announced for 2018/19 season, there are four categories i.e. A+, A, B, and C.

In category A+, sits the players who play all formats like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah and Shikhar Dhawan – who was dropped from Tests last year. In category A, sits players who play only Tests. MS Dhoni is an exception here as he just plays ODIs and T20Is.

Category B consists of players who are regular in limited-overs format and but are not guaranteed a place in Tests. Few players in this category play Tests. Ishant Sharma, who just play Tests, also sits in this category. Lastly in category C, which consists of players who are always in the scheme of things but is yet to cement a place in the team. Since Rishabh Pant is yet to fix his place in the XI, he is likely to get a Grade C contract.

Rishabh Pant set the Sydney Cricket Ground on fire

Rishabh Pant took the cricketing world by storm with his unbeaten 159 runs knock on day two of the fourth Test against Australia at Sydney. He shared two massive stands with Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravindra Jadeja as India declared at 622 for seven in the first innings. Pant impressed since he made his debut in the international circuit. He smashed a brilliant hundred against England in challenging conditions. However, he struggled to convert the starts since the four-match Border-Gavaskar series began. But he has finally found the right chords and it came with a bang.

Rishabh Pant came to the middle after the departure of Hanuma Vihari and since then he made the Sydney crowd dance to his tune. He paced his innings brilliant, unlike the other days when he had to pay the price for being too over aggressive. In the way of scoring his second Test hundred, Pant became the only wicket-keeper batsman to score two overseas Test hundred and the first one to do so in Australia. In addition to, he also broke a 13-year-old record held by MS Dhoni. He overtook Dhoni 148 against Pakistan in 2006 to now have the highest overseas score by an Indian wicket-keeper.

He will still have one innings to have a go at the Australian attack when he gets out to bat in the second innings at Sydney.