Jasprit Bumrah pips Virat Kohli to become India’s highest paid cricketer in 2020; no Rohit Sharma in top 5

Fast-bowler Jasprit Bumrah has become the highest-paid Indian cricketer this year – on terms of salary he received from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

Bumrah has left behind captain Virat Kohli in this list. Kohli’s deputy in the limited-overs format, Rohit Sharma, is not even among the top 5 cricketers.

Bumrah played 4 Tests, 9 ODIs and 8 T20Is for the Indian cricket team this year.

From BCCI, an Indian player gets INR 15 lakh per Test match. Similarly, a match fee of 6 lakhs per ODI and three lakhs for each T20I is paid.

On this basis, Bumrah received Rs 1.38 crores in 2020, which is more than any Indian cricketer. This amount does not include his contract fees, i.e. Rs 7 crores for the 2019-2020 season.

On the other hand, Kohli played 3 Tests, 9 ODIs and 10 T20I for India in 2020. So, he received a total match fee of Rs 1.29 crores this year.

The Indian skipper is not a part of the ongoing second Test against Australia due to paternity leave. If he had played the Boxing Day Test, his total match fees of the year 2020 would have been Rs 1.44 crores.

After Bumrah and Kohli, the Indian cricketer ranked at No.3 in the list is Ravindra Jadeja. The left-handed all-rounder played 2 Tests, 9 ODIs and 4 T20Is this year. In this way, he received a total of INR 96 lakhs in his account.

Meanwhile, star opener Rohit failed to join even the top 5 cricketers who earned the highest match fees in 2020. The main reason behind this was Rohit’s poor fitness. The Nagpur-born played just 3 ODIs and 4 T20Is this year and in total got a match fee of Rs 30 lakhs.

This year Test match specialist Ajinkya Rahane and young wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant received more from the BCCI than Rohit.

Rahane played 4 Test matches in 2020, and this earned him INR 60 lakhs in total, whereas Pant got a cheque of Rs 57 lakhs for playing 3 Tests, 1 ODI and 2 T20Is this year.