The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Monday, April 21, confirmed the annual central contracts for the Indian men's team, with as many as 34 players included for the October 2024-September 2025 period. Led by Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja in the top grade, the list was bumped up by two, as compared to 30 contracted players the last time around. R Ashwin was the notable omission, having retired from international cricket during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy last year.
Rishabh Pant (who was in Grade B until last year) has been promoted and replaced Ashwin in Grade A, while Shreyas Iyer returned to the retainership list in Grade B. Iyer, along with Ishan Kishan, lost their place in the central contracts list but both of them returned after consistent appearances in domestic cricket. Iyer, especially, had a whirlwind year with IPL and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy wins as a captain, became a permanent member of the ODI side and was recently named the ICC Player of the Month for March after being India's leading run-getter in the Champions Trophy title run.
Nitish Kumar Reddy, Akash Deep, Abhishek Sharma, Varun Chakravarthy and Harshit Rana were the new entrants having represented India across formats in the last 12 months or so. While Akash Deep and Nitish Reddy became Test regulars, Rana went on to debut in all three formats for India. Similarly, Chakravarthy, after bamboozling batters in T20Is, made his debut in the ODIs and was one of the sculptors of India's Champions Trophy while Abhishek Sharma has made the T20 opener's position his own alongside Sanju Samson.
Interestingly, Ishan Kishan, who was named in Grade C, hasn't played a match for India since November 2023 but did play domestic cricket for Jharkhand across all formats in the 2024-25 season. Kishan began the 2025 edition of the IPL for the Sunrisers Hyderabad on a thumping note with a 45-ball century against the Rajasthan Royals while Iyer may have lost his form a bit in the last few games, has led Punjab Kings from the front with three fifties.
Apart from Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Avesh Khan, Jitesh Sharma and KS Bharat were also among the snubs for the contracts for the 2024-25 season.
List of players and grade categories
Grade A+: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja
Grade A: Mohammed Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya, Mohammed Shami, Rishabh Pant
Grade B: Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Axar Patel
Grade C: Rinku Singh, Tilak Varma, Ishan Kishan, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Sanju Samson, Mukesh Kumar, Dhruv Jurel, Sarfaraz Khan, Rajat Patidar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Abhishek Sharma, Akash Deep, Varun Chakaravarthy, Harshit Rana, Ravi Bishnoi, Shivam Dube, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Washington Sundar