Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, the two stalwarts of Indian cricket, have been demoted from the A+ category to the B category in the annual central contracts list for the 2025-26 period.
According to a report in Dainik Jagran, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has also removed the A+ category, and the men’s players are now grouped into three categories – A, B and C. It is worth noting that Virat and Rohit not being in the top bracket cannot be seen as a shock, as the BCCI has always put those names in the top bracket who play all three formats of the game.
Hence, it is no surprise to learn that only three names are there in the top A category, and they are – Shubman Gill (Test and ODI captain), Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja.
It is worth mentioning that both Rohit and Virat play just the one format now – ODIs, following their retirements from the T20Is and Tests. The duo have been in cracking form of late in the 50-over format, scoring runs for fun. Yes, Rohit did have a lean run in the last series against New Zealand, but one cannot look past his form in the previous two series against Australia and South Africa.
Virat and Rohit are also joined by the T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav in the B category, and some of the other names in the B category are Washington Sundar, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant. There are 11 players in the B category, while the C category comprises players such as Abhishek Sharma, Varun Chakaravarthy, Axar Patel, and more.
Earlier, the BCCI’s annual retainers were divided into four grades – A+, A, B and C, operating separately from the match fees system. Under the previous structure, Grade A+ was valued at INR 7 crore per year, Grade A at INR 5 crore, Grade B at INR 3 crore, and Grade C at INR 1 crore. However, as of now, it’s not known what the new payment system would be, considering the A+ category has been removed.
Here are the full men’s central contracts list for the 2025-26 period:
A category: Shubman Gill, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja.
B category: Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shreyas Iyer.
C category: Axar Patel, Shivam Dube, Varun Chakaravarthy, Abhishek Sharma, Rinku Singh, Tilak Varma, Arshdeep Singh, Sanju Samson, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Dhruv Jurel, Harshit Rana, Sai Sudharsan, Ravi Bishnoi and Ruturaj Gaikwad.