The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the annual retainership contracts across 4 categories for Indian players on Monday. India's Test and ODI captain Rohit Sharma and batting talisman Virat Kohli retained their place in the A+ bracket, while the previously axed duo of Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan returned to the fold in the list, consisting of a total of 34 players across categories. The A grade, which commands an annual retainership fee of Rs 7 crore, also features Ravindra Jadeja and pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, much like the last few years.
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India's Champions Trophy hero Iyer has been a notable comeback in the list, inducted in group B, which comes with an annual remuneration of Rs 3 crore.
Iyer was dropped last season for allegedly ignoring domestic cricket for the IPL. Wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan. dropped for the same reason, also made a comeback in category C, which is worth Rs 1 crore annually.
Players Promoted or Handed First-Time Contract:
- Rishabh Pant (Grade B to Grade A)
- Shreyas Iyer (None to Grade B, but was part of BCCI contracts before the 2023-24 season)
- Ishan Kishan (None to Grade C, but was part of BCCI contracts before the 2023-24 season)
- Sarfaraz Khan (None to Grade C)
- Nitish Kumar Reddy (None to Grade C)
- Abhishek Sharma (None to Grade C)
- Akash Deep (None to Grade C)
- Varun Chakaravarthy (None to Grade C)
- Harshit Rana (None to Grade C)
Players Demoted or Axed:
- Shardul Thakur (From Grade C to None)
- Jitesh Sharma (From Grade C to None)
- KS Bharat (From Grade C to None)
- Avesh Khan (From Grade C to None)
Rishabh Pant, who was demoted to group B during the 2023-24 season as he didn't due to his recovery from a life-threatening accident, is back in the A category in place of the retired Ravichandran Ashwin. Category A comes with a retainer of Rs 5 crore annually.
Category C features the maximum number of players, 19 in all, with four new entrants in Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Abhishek Sharma, and Nitish Kumar Reddy.
With PTI Inputs