Indian team stalwarts Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have retained their A+ category contracts despite retiring from the T20I format, as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the annual player retainership for the men’s team for the 2024–25 season on Monday.
The top-grade BCCI contract carries an annual payout of Rs 7 crore, in addition to match fees and performance incentives. Senior players Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja, who have also retired from T20Is, have also retained their A+ category contracts.
In a notable development, Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan have returned to the central contract list, with Iyer placed in the B category and Kishan in the C category. The duo had been left out last year due to their absence from domestic cricket.
Ravichandran Ashwin, who retired from international cricket last season, has been replaced in the A category by Rishabh Pant. Pant was previously listed in the B category in last season’s contract list. The other five players in the A category remain unchanged.
New additions to the central contracts list—all placed in Grade C—include Nitish Kumar Reddy, Dhruv Jurel, Abhishek Sharma, Sarfaraz Khan, Akash Deep, Varun Chakravarthy, and Harshit Rana.
Shivam Dube, Jitesh Sharma, KS Bharat, and Avesh Khan—who were part of the C category last season—have been excluded from the contract list altogether.
A total of 34 players have been awarded annual retainerships for the 2024–25 season, covering the period from October 1, 2024, to September 30, 2025.
Grade A+: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja
Grade A: Mohammed Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya, Mohammed Shami, Rishabh Pant
Grade B: Suryakumar Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer
Grade C: Rinku Singh, Tilak Varma, 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 Chakravarthy, Harshit Rana
IANS
