BCCI Central Contracts 2025–26: Kohli and Rohit Demoted, Shubman Gill Tops New Grade A List
The BCCI has announced its central contracts for the 2025–26 season. In a surprising move, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who were earlier among the highest-paid players, have been moved to a lower contract category.
Kohli and Rohit Have Dropped from Grade A to Grade B while Shubman Gill Has Been Promoted; Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma Have Only Been Playing ODI for India as they Will No Longer be Playing T20I or Test Cricket; This Could be Why They Dropped in Categories.
Kohli and Rohit Downgraded as Gill Tops New BCCI Contract List; Women’s Team Gets Four Grade A Players
In Last Years Contract Review, Both Rohit and Kohli Were in A+ Category. The BCCI Has Dropped A+ and Created New Highest Category Called A for the 2025-26 Season. Gill Who Has Recently Been Appointed New Captain of Men in Blue In Test and ODI Has Been Upgraded to the Highest Classification.
It is important to note that the annual earnings for Grade A players will be ₹5 Crores, Grade B players will be ₹3 Crores and Grade C players will be ₹1 Crore. Additionally, the BCCI has issued annual central contracts for the Indian women's cricket team.
It is of interest that the Indian women's team does have four players allocated to Grade A compared to the Indian men's team, namely; Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues and Deepti Sharma. Each of these four players is arguably one of the most recognizable players in Indian women's cricket and are therefore projected to be the highest-paid players of the women's team per month by virtue of the contracts that have been issued to them.
BCCI Central Contracts 2025–26 (Men’s)
| Grade | Players |
|---|---|
| A | Shubman Gill, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja |
| B | Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Mohammed Siraj, Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer |
| C | Axar Patel, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Dhruv Jurel, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Abhishek Sharma, Sai Sudharsan, Ravi Bishnoi, Ruturaj Gaikwad |
BCCI Central Contracts 2025–26 (Women’s)
| Grade | Players |
|---|---|
| A | Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma |
| B | Renuka Thakur, Shafali Verma, Richa Ghosh, Sneh Rana |
| C | Radha Yadav, Amanjot Kaur, Pratika Rawal, Kranti Gaud, Uma Chetry, Arundhati Reddy, Sree Charani, Yastika Bhatia, Harleen Deol, Kashvee Gautam, G Kamalini, Vaishnavi Sharma, Tejal Hasabnis |
