Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli Demoted to Grade B as BCCI Scraps A+ Category in Central Contracts
Mumbai, 9th February 2026: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has demoted former India captains Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli from the top tier of central contracts, placing them in Grade B for the 2025–26 season. The move follows the scrapping of the A+ category altogether, as the board released its updated list of centrally contracted players on Monday.
Rohit and Kohli were part of the elite A+ bracket last year along with Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja. In the revised list, Bumrah and Jadeja have been retained in Grade A. Test and ODI captain Shubman Gill also continues in Grade A, marking his second consecutive year in the top bracket.
Grade B now includes T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav along with 10 other players. A total of 17 players feature in Grade C, including Tilak Varma and Rinku Singh.
Why Rohit and Kohli Were Demoted
The BCCI has moved Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to Grade B as both now play only ODIs. The two legends retired from T20 Internationals after winning the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 and later announced their retirement from Test cricket in May 2024.
Central Contract Structure
For the 2025–26 cycle, the BCCI has classified retained players into three categories:
• Grade A
• Grade B
• Grade C
The board has not yet announced the revised salary structure under this new grading model, though changes were expected.
In the men’s category, 30 players have been contracted:
• Grade A: 3 players
• Grade B: 11 players
• Grade C: 17 players
Last year’s Grade A players KL Rahul, Mohammed Siraj, Hardik Pandya, and Rishabh Pant have been downgraded to Grade B. Players such as Suryakumar Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Washington Sundar, and Shreyas Iyer have retained their places in Grade B.
In Grade C, names include Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube, Sanju Samson, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Dhruv Jurel, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Nitish Reddy, Abhishek Sharma, Ravi Bishnoi, and Ruturaj Gaikwad.
Axar Patel has been demoted to Grade C, while Sai Sudharsan has been included. Mohammed Shami has been left out of the central contract list.
Women’s Central Contracts
In the women’s category, four players each have been placed in Grades A and B.
Grade A (Women):
Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma
Grade B (Women):
Renuka Thakur, Shafali Verma, Richa Ghosh, Sneh Rana
Grade C includes players who impressed in domestic cricket, such as Kranti Goud and Kashvee Gautam.
The BCCI’s decision marks a significant shift in how player contracts are structured, reflecting participation across formats as a key criterion.
