BCCI Annual Contracts 2025–26: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli Dropped to Grade B as A‑Plus Category Gets Scrapped

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced a major reshuffle in its annual central contracts for the 2025–26 season, resulting in some surprising changes for India’s senior stars. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who were previously in the elite A‑plus category, will now be included in Grade B, along with India T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav. This move comes after the BCCI decided to discontinue the A‑plus grade following the retirement of several senior players from certain formats.

With the A‑plus category removed, the central contracts are now organized into three tiers: Grade A, Grade B, and Grade C. Only three players have been placed in the top Grade A bracket: Shubman Gill, Jasprit Bumrah, and Ravindra Jadeja, reflecting their ongoing importance across formats.

The men’s central contracts for 2025–26 are reported as follows:

Grade A:

Shubman Gill

Jasprit Bumrah

Ravindra Jadeja

Grade B:

Rohit Sharma

Virat Kohli

Suryakumar Yadav

Washington Sundar

KL Rahul

Hardik Pandya

Mohammed Siraj

Rishabh Pant

Kuldeep Yadav

Yashasvi Jaiswal

Shreyas Iyer

Grade C:

Axar Patel

Tilak Varma

Rinku Singh

Shivam Dube

Sanju Samson

Arshdeep Singh

Prasidh Krishna

Akash Deep

Dhruv Jurel

Harshit Rana

Varun Chakravarthy

Nitish Kumar Reddy

Abhishek Sharma

Sai Sudharsan

Ravi Bishnoi

Ruturaj Gaikwad

Senior players Rohit and Kohli have stepped away from T20Is after India’s World Cup victory in 2024 and later retired from Tests, participating now only in ODIs. This shift in their playing status has been cited as the reason behind their demotion to Grade B, as they no longer feature in all formats.

Previously, A‑plus players earned ₹7 crore annually, Grade A ₹5 crore, Grade B ₹3 crore, and Grade C ₹1 crore. With the removal of A‑plus, the pay structure is expected to see adjustments, though the exact figures for 2025–26 are yet to be confirmed.

Notable omissions this season include Ishan Kishan, Sarfaraz Khan, and Rajat Patidar, who were in Grade C last year, and Mohammed Shami, a former Grade A player, who does not appear in this cycle.

Women’s Central Contracts:

The BCCI has also updated contracts for women’s cricket. Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, and Deepti Sharma lead the Grade A list. Shafali Verma and Richa Ghosh join Renuka Thakur and Sneh Rana in Grade B, while Grade C features a wide roster of players contributing to India’s growing strength in women’s cricket.

Under the new pay structure, women’s Grade A players earn ₹50 lakh annually, Grade B ₹30 lakh, and Grade C ₹10 lakh.

This overhaul in BCCI contracts emphasizes rewarding players based on current involvement and performance rather than past accolades.