Indian veteran batters Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have been demoted to Grade B central contracts after the duo announced their Test retirements in 2025. The pair had already announced their T20I retirement after the World Cup in 2024. 

Grade A+ category has been removed by the BCCI for this season whereas Shubman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah have been handed the top Grade A contract.

Apart from Kohli and Rohit, Washington Sundar, KL Rahul, Mohammed Siraj, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer have been given Grade B.

Mohammed Shami has not been given a contract as the selectors continue to ignore the veteran fast bowler from Bengal. Surprisingly, Axar Patel, who is India’s T20I vice-captain has been handed a Grade C contract.

Players like Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Dhruv Jurel, Varun Chakaravarthy, Abhishek Sharma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Ravi Bishnoi, Ruturaj Gaikwad have retained their places in Grade C.

Central Contract List 2025-26:

Grade A (3 players): Shubman Gill, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja

Grade B (11 players): Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Washington Sundar, KL Rahul, Mohammed Siraj, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer

Grade C (15 players): 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

IN: Sai Sudharsan

OUT: Mohammed Shami, Ishan Kishan, Rajat Patidar, Mukesh Kumar, Sarfaraz Khan