CRICKET POLL

After skipping the announcement for the 2023-24 season, the BCCI's 16-women list of central contracts for 2024-25 sees a few interesting inclusions and exclusions. Promising young pacer Titas Sadhu, medium-pace allrounders Arundhati Reddy and Amanjot Kaur, wicketkeeper-bat Uma Chetry and currently-injured Shreyanka Patil have made the cut in Grade C which sees the biggest movement from the 2022-23 list.

Of the new entrants, interestingly, only Amanjot Kaur is yet to make her India comeback after a season-ending stress fracture of the back between the second and the third edition of the Women's Premier League. She last featured for the national team in January 2024. The Punjab and MI allrounder was recently adjudged the Emerging Player of the Season 2025 in the WPL as the franchise won its second title in three years.

Those to miss out from Group C include Meghna Singh, Devika Vaidya, S Meghana, Anjali Sarvani and Harleen Deol, who recently made her India comeback and also scored her maiden ODI ton.

Meanwhile, Reddy, who made her T20I comeback in the season gone by and also her ODI debut, has since fallen off the selectors' radar but incidentally found a place in the 10-lakh retainer category.

Grade A sees no changes with both captain and vice-captain duo of Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana alongside star allrounder Deepti Sharma drawing the highest pay - INR 50 lakhs.

From Grade B, left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad has dropped out of the list altogether after falling off the selectors' radar over the last couple of years. Gayakwad last played for India in the one-off Test against South Africa in Chennai, but hasn't featured in a white-ball game for the country since September 2023. The INR 30-lakh category has been pruned to just four names this time - Renuka Thakur, Richa Ghosh, Jemimah Rodrigues and Shafali Verma, who hasn't played for India since the T20 World Cup 2024.

Injured since the T20 World Cup in UAE, Pooja Vastrakar retained her Grace C contract.