Mumbai, Mar 24 (UNI) Young batswoman Shafali Verma has secured a place in the BCCI’s annual retainers list for the 2024-25 season despite not having featured in the national team since October last year.
The 20-year-old has been placed in Grade B, which carries a retainer worth INR 30 lakh.
The BCCI has awarded contracts to 16 players, one short of the 17 announced in April 2023.
Notably, the board did not make the 2023-24 contract details public.
As in the previous cycle, only three players—captain Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, and Deepti Sharma—have been offered Grade A contracts, valued at INR 50 lakh each.
Among the five players placed in Grade B last year, four have retained their spots, with left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad being the only exclusion.
The Grade C category (INR 10 lakh) has seen the inclusion of five new players: off-spinning allrounder Shreyanka Patil, seamers Arundhati Reddy and Titas Sadhu, allrounder Amanjot Kaur, and wicketkeeper Uma Chetry.
Despite their prolonged absence from the national side since the T20 World Cup last October, allrounders Sneh Rana and Pooja Vastrakar have held on to their Grade C retainers. Vastrakar continues to recover from a back injury that ruled her out of WPL 2025, while Rana has not played for India since 2023. Wicketkeeper-batswoman Yastika Bhatia also remains in Grade C despite struggling with form and fitness.
Batswomen Harleen Deol and Pratika Rawal, along with leg-spinner Priya Mishra, are among the notable omissions. Harleen returned from a long injury layoff to register her maiden international century during the home ODI series against West Indies in January.
Pratika made a strong impression in her debut season, scoring a record 444 runs in her first six international innings, the most by any woman batswoman. Priya, who was part of every squad since her ODI debut against New Zealand in October, emerged as one of the standout Indian players in WPL 2025.
The list, finalised by the women’s senior selection panel headed by Neetu David and head coach Amol Muzumdar, covers the period from October 1, 2024, to September 30, 2025.
India’s next assignment is an ODI tri-series in Sri Lanka featuring South Africa, scheduled for April. This will be followed by a tour of England in the summer as part of the team’s FTP commitments, leading up to the 50-over World Cup, which India will host in September.
New Entrants: Shreyanka Patil, Titas Sadhu, Arundhati Reddy, Uma Chetry, Amanjot Kaur Excluded Players: Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Harleen Deol, Meghna Singh, Devika Vaidya, S Meghana, Anjali Sarvani.
