Team India veterans Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have been downgraded to Grade B of the latest annual central contract by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
The BCCI awarded central contracts to 30 men and 21 women cricketers classified in groups A, B and C.
Shubman Gill, who has been leading Team India in two formats, Tests and ODIs, has been named in the Grade A contract by the board. Along with him, lead pacer Jasprit Bumrah and star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja are also named in the same grade.
Grade B consists of players, Washington Sundar, Rohit, Kohli, KL Rahul, Mohammed Siraj, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Suryakumar Yadav, and Shreyas Iyer.
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, and Ruturaj Gaikwad have been named in Grade C of the annual contract.
🚨 News 🚨
BCCI announces Annual Player Retainership for Team India Senior Men and Senior Women for the 2025-26 season#TeamIndia | Details 🔽https://t.co/Rd3pUCPRr9 pic.twitter.com/UNYRThs1kW
— BCCI (@BCCI) February 9, 2026
Currently, Team India is busy featuring in the T20 World Cup 2026. So far, the “Men in Blue” under the leadership of Suryakumar Yadav have secured a win over the United States of America (USA) by 29 runs.
They will now lock horns with Namibia on February 12 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. The high-voltage clash between arch-rivals, India and Pakistan, is scheduled to be played on February 15 at the R. Premadasa International Cricket Stadium in Colombo.
Team India will conclude its group stage matches by playing a clash against the Netherlands on February 18 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
The semi-final 1 and semi-final 2 of the marquee tournament are scheduled to be played on March 4 and 5, respectively. The title clash of the event will be played on March 8, with the venue yet to be decided.
India`s squad for the T20 World Cup 2026
Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Rinku Singh.
(With PTI Inputs)
