Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli Retain Grade A+ Deals As BCCI Announces Central Contracts For 2024-25

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have been retained in Grade A+, while Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan returned as the BCCI announced the list of 34 players who got the central contract for the 2024-25 season. This list was announced on April 21, 2025.

The A+ grade, which fetches Rs seven crores in retainer fees annually. If a player retires from one format or is not selected in a certain format, the BCCI will typically downgrade them.

Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravindra Jadeja have retired from T20Is

Following India's victory in the T20 World Cup 2024, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravindra Jadeja announced their retirement from Twenty20 Internationals.

As a result, there were rumors that these three players would be kept in the highest grade.

Given their stature and value to the Indian squad, the BCCI has chosen to keep all three players in Grade A+, and they will still play for India in Test matches and One-Day Internationals.

Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan return to the BCCI fold

After moving up from Grade B to Grade A, Rishabh Pant is now paired alongside Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, and Hardik Pandya.

Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan lost their central contracts in 2024 after refusing to play domestic cricket, but they have subsequently returned to the BCCI's contract pool.

While Iyer, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Suryakumar Yadav are all in Grade B, Kishan was placed in Grade C.

Varun Chakravarthy, Abhishek Sharma, Sarfaraz Khan, Akash Deep, Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Kumar Reddy, and Harshit Rana are among the new hires in Grade C.

Shardul Thakur, KS Bharat, Avesh Khan, and Jitesh Sharma were on the Grade C list from the previous year, which was the lowest of the retainers. All four have been excluded.

Here is a list of players included in the BCCI central contract:

A+ (₹7 crore): Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, and Ravindra Jadeja

A (₹5 crore): Mohammed Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya, Mohammed Shami, Rishabh Pant

B (₹3 crore): Suryakumar Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Shreyas Iyer

C (₹1 crore): 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, and Harshit Rana.

🚨 𝗡𝗘𝗪𝗦 🚨

BCCI announces annual player retainership 2024-25 - Team India (Senior Men)#TeamIndia

Details 🔽https://t.co/lMjl2Ici3P pic.twitter.com/CsJHaLSeho

— BCCI (@BCCI) April 21, 2025

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