Low biomass yield is considered to be a major limiting factor of chickpea productivity in semi-arid short duration environments of Peninsular India. Correlation and path coefficient analyses performed on grain yield and 14 other agronomic traits of 25 diverse chickpea genotypes to assess direct and indirect contribution of each trait to grain yield and formulate an effective selection criteria to improve biomass and grain yield of chickpea under residual soil moisture condition. Results have shown that biomass had the largest positive direct effect on grain yield and selection of tall types with more number of secondary branches/plant and seeds/plant and seeds of large size would be highly rewarding in simultaneously increasing biomass and grain yield of chickpea. JG 11, BGD 103, BGD 121 and BGD 72 are some of the high biomass and grain yield producing genotypes adapted to rainfed conditions of short duration environments.