Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, who were in the A+ category have been demoted to the B category in the central annual contracts list for the 2025-26 period. 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. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) made the official announcement on Monday, restructuring the men’s central contracts into three categories — A, B and C — with the A+ bracket scrapped altogether.
Kohli and Rohit missing out on the top tier does not come as a surprise, given the BCCI’s long-standing policy of reserving the highest category for players who feature across all three formats. With both veterans having stepped away from T20Is, their demotion was largely expected. As a result, only three players have been placed in the top A category: Test and ODI captain Shubman Gill, pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, and all-rounder 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.
