Former India captains Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have dropped down to the second tier (Grade B) of the BCCI’s list of contracted men’s players for 2025-26. Both play only one of the three formats now.

The contracts (see box) cover the period from October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026.

The top tier (Grade A) includes three players: Test and ODI captain Shubman Gill, fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah, and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, who is now India’s most experienced Test player.

The new contracts list does not include the A+ grade that was in place in the 2024-25 list. Kohli, Rohit, Bumrah and Jadeja had been the four players in that tier.

This effectively means that Gill, who took over both the Test and ODI captaincy
from Rohit last year, has got significant progression in the contract.

T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav is in Grade B alongwith Test keeper and vice-captain Rishabh Pant, batters KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shreyas Iyer, all-rounders Hardik Pandya and Washington Sundar, spinner Kuldeep Yadav and fast bowler Mohammed Siraj.

Ishan Kishan, who was included in Grade C last year, misses out, along with the likes of Mohammed Shami, Sarfaraz Khan, Rajat Patidar, and Mukesh Kumar. Axar Patel, too, has dropped down to Grade C.

Ishan had only recently returned to the side and missed out almost the entire last season.

There are no new contracted players, with the overall men’s list trimmed from 34 players to 30.