NEW DELHI: Batsmen Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan have won back central contracts, while stumper-batsman Rishabh Pant was upgraded in the new retainer list announced by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Monday.

Both Iyer and Kishan were left out last year after they skipped domestic cricket, which irked the BCCI, though Iyer cited a back injury.

Iyer was India’s highest run-getter in the team’s Champions Trophy victory this year and has excelled across formats to join India T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Yashasvi Jaiswal in Grade B.

Kishan, a left-handed wicketkeeper-batsman, is part of a 19-player group, who have been awarded Grade C contracts.

Seven players, including Sarfaraz Khan, Abhishek Sharma and Harshit Rana were handed central contracts for the first time.

Test and ODI captain Rohit Sharma, veteran Virat Kohli, pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah and all-rounder Ravidra Jadeja have been placed in the A+ grade, the top category of the contract system.

Of the quartet, only Bumrah plays all three formats, while the other three quit T20 Internationals immediately after India won the 20-overs World Cup in West Indies last year.

Pant moved up to Grade A, which also includes the pace duo of Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj. Ravichandran Ashwin, who retired from international cricket earlier this year and formerly had a grade A contract, was dropped from the list.

The BCCI, the world’s richest cricket board, did not stipulate pay for each category, but local media reported they would be 70 million Indian rupees ($822,561.69) for Grade A+, 50 million for A, 30 million for B and 10 million for C.

India contracted players for 2024-25:

Category A+: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja.

Category A: Mohammed Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya, Mohammed Shami, Rishabh Pant.

Category B: Suryakumar Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer.

Category C: Rinku Singh, Tilak Varma, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, Washington Sundar, Mukesh Kumar, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Rajat Patidar, Dhruv Jurel, Sarfaraz Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ishan Kishan, Abhishek Sharma, Akash Deep, Varun Chakravarthy, Harshit Rana.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2025