BCCI central contracts: Suryakumar Yadav in Grade B, Ishan Kishan's inclusion and other questionable decisions

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced its latest list of centrally-contracted cricketers on Monday, and the highlight of the announcement was Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan making a comeback after getting dropped from the list last year. And to no one’s surprise, Ravichandran Ashwin was dropped from the list, with the spin legend having announced his retirement from international cricket midway during the tour of Australia.

The list comprises 34 players with Test and ODI captain Rohit Sharma included in the top bracket (Grade A+) of Rs 7 crore along with Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja. Additionally, seven players are awarded a contract for the first time, including dashing opener Abhishek Sharma and mystery leg-spinner Varun Chakravarthy.

And besides Ashwin, seamers Shardul Thakur and Avesh Khan as well as wicketkeeper-batters Jitesh Sharma and KS Bharat have been left out of the list, which runs from 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025.

There were, however, a few decisions by the board that raised eyebrows, which we look at in greater detail below:

Surya in Grade B despite captaining India

Suryakumar Yadav succeeded Rohit as India’s T20I captain after the latter retired from the format along with Kohli and Jadeja following India’s triumph in the T20 World Cup last year. Not only are the Men in Blue enjoying a dominant run under his leadership, the Mumbai Indians batter has also been dishing out big scores with the bat on a regular basis.

For him to be included in Grade B despite captaining India in the shortest format and doing a fantastic job at that certainly does comes as a surprise. As is the decision to include Axar Patel in the same grade despite the spin-bowling all-rounder firing across formats and making crucial contributions in India’s victorious Champions Trophy campaign recently, including and especially as a floater in the batting order.

Kishan’s inclusion despite not playing international cricket since 2023

While Iyer and Kishan return to the contracts list after controversially being left out last year, it’s the format who has been dishing out match-winning contributions for the Men in Blue in recent months. Kishan has not played international cricket since November 2023, which he was part of the Indian side that took on Australia in a five-match T20I series immediately after the ODI World Cup.

As far as the ongoing Indian Premier League is concerned, Kishan did make a strong statement with an unbeaten 106 off 47 balls in Sunrisers Hyderabad’s season-opener against Rajasthan Royals. The wicketkeeper-batter, however, has scored just 32 runs in his next six outings, his sudden dip in form coinciding with the ‘Orange Army’ string of losses that has relegated them to the bottom half of the table.

Rohit and Kohli in top bracket despite being at the end of their careers

Rohit, Kohli and Jadeja meanwhile, have been retained in the top bracket ( alongside Bumrah despite being in the twilight of their careers. Rohit and Kohli have no doubt had a huge impact on Indian cricket for more than a decade now, as both as captain as well as batter, and are among the biggest stars of their generation.

And it’s not just their age and the fact that they’re approaching the end of their careers that makes their retention in the top bracket a bit questionable despite their star status; they had also endured horror runs with the bat in recent Test assignments, especially skipper Rohit.

Ro-Ko and Jadeja, additionally no longer represent Team India in the shortest format while Bumrah remains India’s premier bowler in all three formats. Which brings to mind the question whether Grade A+ should be reserved for those players who ideally have plenty of distanced to be covered as far as their careers are concerned, and ideally play all three formats for the team.