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Following the multi-format tour in Pakistan, Cricket Australia released the updated lists of centrally contract players on Thursday. As per the update, Ashes hero, Jhye Richardson and Kane Richardson have lost their contracts with the men's national side, while wicket-keeper batter Josh Inglis has earned an upgrade. Notably, Jhye picked five wickets on his return to the Test side in the second match of the Ashes, but his impressive performance was not enough to bag him a contract.

The upgrade in contract shows management's complete faith in Inglis, who made his T20I debut for Australia in the Sri Lanka series. He played every match of the series and the one-off T20I against Pakistan earlier this month. Despite being a quality wicket-keeper, Inglis was selected as a batter, whereas Mathew Wade continued to keep wickets for Australia.

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Notably, players who did not make it to Cricket Australia's 20-men contract list are still eligible to represent Australia and can earn contract upgrades by acquiring points. A player requires 12 points to earn an upgrade and receives five for a Test match, two for an ODI and one for a T20I.

In a statement released by Cricket Australia, Chief Selector George Bailey showed confidence in the depth of Australia's talent.

"We believe this group provides us great coverage and versatility across all formats while others, as we saw in the past year, will continue to get opportunities to play a big part," Bailey said. He further stated that an enormous amount of cricket is to be played this year, including a tour of Sri Lanka, the T20 World Cup, home summer, and a time in India will allow us to test our talent and perfect combinations.

This announcement came just hours after Cricket Australia announced its women's contract list for 2022-23. Notably, Alana King is the only new face to earn a contract with the Aussie women's cricket side, while fellow spinner Sophie Molineux been axed.