Rohit Sharma retains grade A+ as BCCI announces central contracts for 34 players for 2024-25 season

Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Virat Kohli, and Jasprit Bumrah are the four players in the Grade A+ list.

India ODI and test captain Rohit Sharma has retained the Grade A+ deal, along with Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the central contracts for 2024-25 season on April 21, 2025.

A total of 34 Indian players were given the central contracts by the BCCI on Monday.

The A+ grade commands an annual retainership fee of Rs 7 crores. Normally, the BCCI would downgrade a player if they retire from one format or are not picked in a particular format. Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravindra Jadeja had retired from T20Is after India won the T20 World Cup 2024.

Therefore, there were speculations about whether these three players would be retained in the topmost grade or not.

However, the BCCI has decided to retain all the three players in the Grade A+ given their stature and contribution to the Indian team, as they continue to play in tests and ODIs for India.

Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan return, Rishabh Pant promoted

Rishabh Pant has been elevated from Grade B to Grade A and is now placed with Mohammed Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya, and Mohammed Shami.

After refusing to play domestic cricket in 2024, Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan lost their central contracts; however, they have since rejoined the BCCI’s contract pool. Kishan has been included in Grade C, while Iyer, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and India T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav are all in Grade B.

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

Last year’s Grade C list, which was the lowest of the retainers, included Shardul Thakur, KS Bharat, Avesh Khan, and Jitesh Sharma. All four have been removed.

There was a notable addition of special fast bowling contracts during the previous season. However, there has not been any mention of fast bowling contracts for the 2024–25 season.

Here is a list of players included in the BCCI central contracts for 2024-25 season:

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.

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