 "India opener Abhishek Sharma celebrates after completing his century in 37 balls during the fifth T20 against England. Image: AP")
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Monday announced the list of centrally contracted players for Team India for the 2024-25 season. There are quite a few interesting changes and surprises in the list of 34 players.
Rohit and Kohli remain in A+ despite T20I retirement
Even though Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have retired from T20 Internationals, the BCCI has kept both of them in the top A+ category, which comes with a yearly salary of INR 7 crore. This shows how important they still are for India in Test matches and ODIs.
Along with them, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja also continue in the A+ grade, just like previous years.
Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan make a comeback
Middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer, who was left out of the contract list last year reportedly for skipping domestic matches, has returned to the list. He is now in Grade B, which earns INR 3 crore annually. Iyer’s recent performances, including in ICC Champions Trophy 2025, have helped him earn his place back.
Wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan, who was also out of the contracts last season for similar reasons as Iyer, is back in Grade C. Though he hasn’t been a regular starter for India lately, the BCCI has kept him in the loop with a INR 1 crore contract.
Pant promoted, Ashwin dropped
Rishabh Pant, who had dropped to Grade B last year due to injury, is now back in Grade A. He has made a good comeback after his car accident and is expected to be a key player for the national side in the future.
On the other hand, veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has not been included in any grade this time. Ashwin announced retirement from all formats of international cricket earlier this year during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia.
New faces get their first contract
Four new players have been included in Grade C for the first time. Abhishek Sharma, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy, and Nitish Kumar Reddy have been handed central contracts. All four have impressed in the IPL and international cricket.
BCCI central contracts list 2024-25
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.