Mumbai: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the annual central contracts for the senior men’s team for the 2024-25 season on Monday, April 21. Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan made a return to the list after missing out last year. A total of 34 players were awarded annual retainers for the 2024-25 season, covering the period from October 1, 2024, to September 30, 2025.
BCCI ANNUAL RETAINDERSHIP
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: 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.
There were doubts over whether Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli would be retained in Grade A-plus along with Ravindra Jadeja after the trio retired from T20Is after winning the World Cup last year. However, all three players have been retained in the top bracket along with Jasprit Bumrah. All three are still part of India’s ODI and Test set-ups. Meanwhile, R Ashwin has been dropped from the contracted players list after he retired from international cricket last year.
Rishabh Pant, on the other hand, has moved from Grade B to Grade A. Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan slot back into Grade B and Grade C, respectively. The two players were stripped of their BCCI contracts last year for apparent failure to play domestic cricket consistently.