Umar Akmal out of central contract, Sarfraz promoted to category A

Category B - Babar Azam, Imad Wasim, Asad Shafiq, Hasan Ali.(Photo:AP)

Category A - Azhar Ali, Shoaib Malik, Sarfraz Ahmed, Yasir Shah, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Amir.(Photo:AP)

Category D - Mohammad Nawaz, Asif Zakir, Usama Salahuddin, Amir Yamin, Usman Shinwari, Fahim Ashraf, Ruman Raees, Imamul Haq, Bilal Asif, Mir Hamza, Umer Amin, Mohammad Hasan, Mohammad Asghar, Mohammad Rizwan. (Photo:AP)

Category C - Wahab Riaz, Rahat Ali, Haris Sohail, Sami Aslam, Shan Masood, Sohail Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Junaid Khan, Ahmed Shehzad, Mohammad Abbas, Shadab Khan.(Photo:AP)

Wahab Riaz is the biggest surprise in category C, which is dominated by youngsters.

The PCB has given a 10 per cent increase in the monthly retainers of the contracts as per a three-year agreement between the players and PCB, which basically means that the top category will have a monthly salary of around 500,000 rupees followed by 425,000, 350,000 and 275,000 rupees. (Photo: ICC)

Babar Azam is the most prominent face in category B. (Photo: AFP)

Captain Sarfraz Ahmed’s purple patch continued as he was elevated to category A. (Photo: ICC)

Senior players Azhar Ali, Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Hafeez have quite understandably been kept on category A.

The position of leg-spinner Yasir Shah in Category A has raised some questions as he only plays Test cricket.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced the list of 35 players, who were awarded new central contracts for the next season.

Akmal was sent back home from the Champions Trophy in England after failing a fitness test before the tournament and was also sidelined in April for the tour to the West Indies for fitness and other reasons. (Photo: AFP)

In a decision taken by the PCB in consultation with the national selectors and team management, a clear message was sent out to Umar Akmal that he needed to work on his attitude, behaviour and fitness.(Photo: AFP)

Enigmatic batsman Umar Akmal was dropped from the list. (Photo: AFP)