New Delhi: 

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced the annual player retainership for Team India (Senior Men) for the 2024-25 season, notably marking the return of Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan, who were axed from the central contracts list for the 2023-24 season. 

Giving required importance and attention to domestic cricket lately, the duo has been awarded the annual player contracts for the next season (October 1st, 2024, to September 30th, 2025).

Rishabh Pant gets upgrade:

Meanwhile, Rishabh Pant has been upgraded to A category and shares the bracket with KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya, Mohammed Shami, and Mohammed Siraj. Grade B includes five players, namely Suryakumar Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Shreyas Iyer.

Seeing Iyer’s latest international and domestic performances, eyebrows are raised over Pant getting an A-category contract instead of him.

Complete list of players with BCCI central contracts (2024-25)

Grade A+ – Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja

Grade A – Mohammed Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya, Mohammad Shami, Rishabh Pant

Grade B – Suryakumar Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer

Grade C – 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, Harshit Rana

Grade-wise salary breakdown –

Grade A+: Rs. 7 crore/year

Grade A: Rs. 5 crore/year

Grade B: Rs. 3 crore/year

Grade C: Rs. 1 crore/year

Nonetheless, Grade C holds a total of 19 players in which several upcoming stars are placed. The likes of Harshit Rana, Abhishek Sharma, Varun Chakaravarthy, Nitish Kumar Reddy, and Akash Deep have been awarded their maiden BCCI central contracts.

Meanwhile, Kishan was added to the Grade C bracket as he has shown promising signs in the ongoing IPL 2025 campaign.

Last year’s additions to the contracts, like Sarfaraz Khan and Dhruv Jurel, have been retained by the board, seeing their potential in Test cricket.

T20 regulars like Arshdeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar, Tilak Varma, and Sanju Samson are well present in the contracts list. Other Grade C players include Rajat Patidar, Shivam Dube, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ravi Bishnoi, Prasidh Krishna, and Mukesh Kumar.

Earlier in the month, there was some speculation around Rohit, Kohli, and Jadeja’s exit from the A+ category (top bracket offering Rs. 7 crore as annual salary) as the troika bid farewell to the T20 internationals last year, but they were ultimately retained by the board.

A total of 34 players have been handed Team India deals for the upcoming year, with only four players making it into the A+ category – Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, and Ravindra Jadeja.

The other three categories are Grade A, Grade B, and Grade C, and these 34 players have been divided into these four categories as per their performances and participation across the three formats.

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