Fifteen-year-old Shafali Verma awarded BCCI contract

Having already featured in nine T20Is, Verma will be one of the players to watch out for at the marquee tournament next month. She recently slammed a 78-ball 124 against Australia A in Brisbane, in a knock that featured 19 fours and four sixes.

Verma has been handed a Grade C contract, alongside 10 other players, including the newly-contracted Priya Punia and Harleen Deol. Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana, India's T20I skipper and her deputy, have been handed Grade A contracts, alongside all-rounder Poonam Yadav.

ODI skipper Mithali Raj, who has retired from T20I cricket, has been moved to the Grade B tier. Veteran fast bowler Jhulan Goswami, who has also hung up her boots in the shortest format, is also under the same contract as Raj.

Wicket-keeper batter Taniya Bhatia and spinner Radha Yadav have been promoted to a Grade B contract.

The full list:

**Grade A (INR 50 lakh):**Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Poonam Yadav

**Grade B (INR 30 lakh):**Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Ekta Bisht, Radha Yadav, Shikha Pandey, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Taniya Bhatia

Grade C (INR 10 lakh): Veda Krishnamurthy, Punam Raut, Anuja Patil, Mansi Joshi, D. Hemlatha, Arundhati Reddy, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Pooja Vastrakar, Harleen Deol, Priya Punia, Shafali Verma