Indian Cricket Update: BCCI announces new Annual Player Contract list

BCCI announces updated annual player contracts for Indian men’s and women’s cricket teams, highlighting upgrades, downgrades, and new player additions.

As many as 30 players have been awarded BCCI Men’s Annual Player Central Contracts across three categories – Grade A, Grade B, and Grade C. Five notable players, including Ishan Kishan and Mohammad Shami, have missed out on the 2025-26 list. India’s new Test No. 3, Sai Sudharsan, has been the only new addition in Grade C.

It was a bit shocking that Kishan didn’t get his name among the 30 players on the list. The left-handed batter recently won the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) 2025-26 for Jharkhand. He finished as the leading run-getter of the campaign with 517 runs in 10 innings at a strike rate of 197.32, thanks to two fifties and as many centuries. Even on his return to India’s T20I side, he celebrated a fine century against New Zealand.

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli demoted to Category B in BCCI’s Annual Contract 2025-26 list
The two former India captains, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, who now play only one of the three formats, have been dropped to the second tier (Category B). These contracts cover the period from October 01, 2025, to September 30, 2026.

The top tier (Category A) includes only three players – Test and ODI captain, Shubman Gill, the premier pacer Jasprit Bumrah, and veteran all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja. Following the retirements of Kohli, Rohit, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Cheteshwar Pujara, Jadeja is now India’s most experienced active red-ball player.

Gill, who took over the Test and ODI captaincy from Rohit last year, is the biggest mover in the contracts list. He enjoyed an outstanding first Test series as captain in England, scoring 754 runs in 10 innings at an average of 75.40, including four centuries.

India’s T20I captain, Suryakumar Yadav, is in Category B alongside the seniors, including Test wicket-keeper and vice-captain, Rishabh Pant. The openers, KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal, are also part of the category along with middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer, and all-rounders Hardik Pandya and Washington Sundar.

The BCCI has merged Grades A and B from the 2024-25 contracts into a single middle tier, Category B, for the 2025-26 season. Washington Sundar has been promoted by one tier as a result. Meanwhile, spin-bowling all-rounder Axar Patelhas been surprisingly downgraded from Grade B to Category C, despite serving as India’s vice-captain in white-ball cricket and being part of the squad for the 2026 T20 World Cup.

The overall men’s list from the previous contract has been trimmed from 34 players to 30. Along with Kishan and Shami, there are no places for Sarfaraz Khan, Rajat Patidar, and Mukesh Kumar. The board hasn’t revealed the pay scales for the three contract categories yet.  

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List of BCCI’s Men’s Annual Player Contract 2025-26 list

Category A- Shubman Gill, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja.

Category B- Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Mohammed Sira

Category C- Dhruv Jurel, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Abhishek Sharma, B Sai Sudharsan, Ravi Bishnoi, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Axar Patel, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep.

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Jemimah Rodrigues upgraded to BCCI’s Grade A contract list
India’s standout performer in the 2025 Women’s World Cup semifinal against Australia, Jemimah Rodrigues, has been awarded the top grade in the BCCI women’s central contracts for the 2025-26 season. She played a stunning unbeaten knock of 127 off 134 balls to guide India to a remarkable five-wicket victory in a 339-run chase. 

The BCCI didn’t specify the value of the contract grades, even in this case. But the report of ESPNcricinfo claims that there has been no change to last year’s structure. This means that the Grade A will be of INR 50 lakh, the Grade B will remain at INR 30 lakh, while the Grade C will get INR 10 lakh.

Rodrigues is the only addition to the Grade A, which also includes Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, and Deepti Sharma. Mandhana finished India’s title-winning World Cup campaign as their leading run-getter with 434 runs at 54.25, thanks to one century and two fifties.

There has been a significant movement in Grade B, with all the World Cup-winning squad members- Radha Yadav, Amanjot Kaur, and Arundhati Reddy- earning promotions. Meanwhile, Pratika Rawal, Kranti Gaud, and Uma Chetry are the new entries in the list.

Rawal was India’s second-leading run-getter of the World Cup with 308 runs at 51.33 before missing the knockouts with injury. Subsequently, Sneh Rana has earned a step up to Grade B after her comeback in the middle of 2025.

All-rounders Shreyanka Patil and Pooja Vastrakar were notable omissions. Both were in the Grade C category in the previous cycle and ended up on the sidelines due to multiple injuries. They were part of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru Women’s WPL 2026 winning campaign.

List of BCCI’s Women’s Annual Player Contract 2025-26 list

Grade A: Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma

Grade B: Renuka Thakur, Shafali Verma, Richa Ghosh, Sneh Rana, Radha Yadav, Amanjot Kaur, Pratika Rawal, Kranti Gaud, Uma Chetry, Arundhati Reddy

Grade C: Shree Charani, Yastika Bhatia, Harleen Deol, Kashvee Gautam, G Kamalini, Vaishnavi Sharma, Tejal Hasabnis.

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