Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma demoted to Grade B as BCCI announces annual player contracts for India men’s and women’s teams

NEW DELHI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the annual player contracts for India’s senior men’s and women’s teams for the 2025–26 season on Monday.

Interestingly, senior stars Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who retired from T20Is and Tests over the last couple of years but are regulars in ODIs, have been placed in Grade B. In the previous edition, they were the only names to feature in Grade A+ alongside Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja.



These contracts run from October 1, 2025, to September 30, 2026, and are a way for the board to reward players based on performance, importance to the team, and consistency.

In simple terms, the contracts are divided into grades, with Grade A being the top tier.

Players in this category are usually key match-winners and regular starters. For this season, Shubman Gill, Jasprit Bumrah, and Ravindra Jadeja have been placed in Grade A for the men’s team.

This shows how important they are to India’s plans going forward, especially Gill as a leading batter and Bumrah as India’s main fast bowler.


On the women’s side, Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, and Deepti Sharma are in Grade A.

These players have been the backbone of India’s women’s team, delivering strong performances with both bat and ball and leading the side in major tournaments.

While the likes of Kohli and Rohit remain big names and experienced leaders, this change could reflect a shift toward younger players and a new phase in Indian cricket, where the focus is slowly moving to the next generation.


BCCI's annual player contracts for India’s senior men’s team

• Grade A: Shubman Gill, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja
• Grade B: Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Washington Sundar, KL Rahul, Mohammed Siraj, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer
• Grade C: Axar Patel, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Dhruv Jurel, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Nitish Reddy, Abhishek Sharma, Sai Sudharsan, Ravi Bishnoi, Ruturaj Gaikwad

BCCI's annual player contracts for India’s senior women’s team

• Grade A: Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma
• Grade B: Renuka Singh, Shafali Verma, Richa Ghosh, Sneh Rana
• Grade C: Radha Yadav, Amanjot Kaur, Pratika Rawal, Kranti Gaud, Uma Chetry, Arundhati Reddy, Sree Charani, Yastika Bhatia, Harleen Deol, Kashvee Gautam, G Kamalini, Vaishnavi Sharma, Tejal Hasabnis

Get the latest ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 updates, including the full schedule, teams, live scores, points table, and key series stats such as top run-scorers and wicket-takers.