BCCI Central Contract 2025: Talking points from BCCI's contract announcement

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the Central Contract for the 2025-26 season on Monday, 21st April 2025. 7 new players were added to the contract, while players like Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan returned to the list after missing out last time.

Last year, Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were left out of the BCCI central contract after opting out of the domestic games for their respective state teams. BCCI's focus on domestic cricket left them out of the central contract despite being part of the Indian team set up a few months ago.

But, this time, both the Indian batters were added to the contract after Iyer won everything in the domestic cricket last season, along with lifting the IPL 2024 with Kolkata Knight Riders. Ishan Kishan also played through the entire domestic season and has been rewarded with the contract too. 

Read Also | "Mere Sath Kyun?.:" Ishan Kishan breaks silence on Team India exit and Central Contract termination

Talking points from the BCCI Central Contract 2025

Rohit and Kohli stay in Grade A+ 

Both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli remained in the Grade A+ category despite retiring from the T20I format. Rohit and Virat had announced their retirement from the shortest format of the game after lifting the T20 World Cup 2024 in the West Indies. 

Ravindra Jadeja is another name who has been listed in the A+ category despite retiring from the T20Is after the World Cup victory.

Bumrah is the only all-format player in A+

With Rohit, Kohli and Jadeja retiring from the shortest format of the game, Jasprit Bumrah remains the only all-format player to be in the A+ category of the BCC Central Contract 2025.

Pant is promoted to the Grade A category

Rishabh Pant received a promotion to the A category after being in the B category last year. Mohammed Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya and Mohammed Shami are the other names in the A category, who were already there in last year's contract. 

Ravi Ashwin has been left out of the contract since he retired from international cricket.

Iyer listed in grade B; Kishan in grade C

Shreyas Iyer, who was left out of the contract last year, has been included in the Grade B, while Ishan Kishan has been listed in the Grade C. 

Suryakumar Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Yashasvi Jaiswal are the other names in Grade B, who were there last time as well. 

New 7 names in Grade C

7 new players have been added to the BCCI Central Contract 2025. All of these players found themselves in Grade C. 

Dhruv Jurel, Sarafraz Khan, Nitish Reddy, Abhishek Sharma, Varun Chakaravarthy, Harshit Rana, and Akash Deep are the players who received the contract for their performances in the last season. 

Not to be confused, Akash Deep earlier had a fast bowling contract and this year received the central contract after doing well in the Test format. 

Shardul Thakur, Jitesh Sharma, KS Bharath, Avesh Khan, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Umran Malik, Yash Dayal and Vidwath Kaverappa have been left out of the contract this year.

Vijaykumar Vyshak, Umran Malik, Yash Dayal and Vidwath Kaverappa were all part of the fast bowling contract last season. 

BCCI Central Contract 2025

BCCI announces annual player retainership 2024-25 - Team India (Senior Men) 💙🤝#Bcci #IndianCricket #Viratkohli #RohitSharma #jaspritbumrah #Shreyasiyer #KlRahul #HardikPandya #Ipl2025 pic.twitter.com/LSmlg06QOS

— Sportz Point (@sportz_point) April 21, 2025