The BCCI kept big names Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in the top tier of its yearly player contracts, just a day after both put on impressive performances in the IPL. Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan, who were previously dropped, made a return in lower brackets among the 34 players under contract, which also features Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja in the highest-paid A+ category. Iyer and Kishan were left out last year for not participating in domestic cricket.
Both Rohit and Kohli are in the A+ category, but it’s uncertain if Rohit will lead the team in the upcoming Test series in England, as his recent form has been shaky. The decision will depend on input from head coach Gautam Gambhir, among others. The BCCI has four contract categories: A+ (7 crore), A (5 crore), B (3 crore), and C (1 crore).
It seems the national selectors created this contract list weeks ago, but they waited to announce it until after Rohit and Kohli’s great innings—Rohit scored 76 and Kohli made 73. Iyer landed in category B, while Kishan returned in category C. After being dropped to category B due to his recovery from a serious accident, Rishabh Pant is back up in category A, taking the place of retired player Ravichandran Ashwin.
A player’s contract is based on their past year’s performance. The A+ category is for automatic picks for all formats, A is for those who regularly play Tests and sometimes other formats, B is for players who appear in at least two formats, and C is for newcomers or those who specialize in one format.
There are questions about why Rohit, Kohli, and Jadeja stay in A+ despite announcing their retirement from T20 cricket. A BCCI official clarified that the assessment year for the current contracts runs from October 2023 to September 2024, and since they played in the T20 World Cup final in June 2024, they were considered regulars at that time. Ishan and Shreyas got their categories based on their recent games too.
Suryakumar Yadav remains in grade B, having played in two formats last year. While the top categories didn’t see major changes, grade C expanded from 17 to 19 players with new faces like Sarfaraz Khan and Dhruv Jurel. New players in this category, like Nitish Kumar Reddy and Harshit Rana, made their debuts last fall.
To qualify for a contract, a player must compete in a certain number of international games each year. The lowest category now includes five newcomers: Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Abhishek Sharma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, and Akash Deep. A notable omission from the list is Shardul Thakur, who hasn’t played for India since the 2023 ODI World Cup.
Here’s the current BCCI contract list by category:
- A+ category: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja
- A category: Mohammed Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya, Mohammed Shami, Rishabh Pant
- B category: Suryakumar Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer.
- C category: Rinku Singh, Tilak Verma, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, Washington Sundar, Mukesh Kumar, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Rajat Patidar, Dhruv Jurel, Sarfaraz Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ishan Kishan, Abhishek Sharma, Akash Deep, Varun Chakaravarthy, Harshit Rana.
