With Shubman Gill and Jasprit Bumrah in top tier, discover the 2025-26 full annual salary contract retention for Team India players for AY 2026.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) recently announced the annual player retainership for AY 2025-26. A total of 30 players have been given the contract, which runs from October 1st, 2025 to September 30th, 2026. Unlike the previous years where A+ was added as a retainer Grade, this year onwards only three grades have been added – A, B and C. This is similar to what the Women’s team has.
But if we observe the bifurcation closely, the BCCI seems to have given the weightage as per the format, and the number of formats each player is playing. As has been the case for the last few years, Tests have been given the highest importance, followed by ODIs, and then T20Is. So, if someone plays only Tests and ODIs, they would at least fall in Grade B. But if someone plays both Tests and ODIs, they would fall in Grade A. However, if someone plays only T20Is, they most likely fall in Grade C.
The BCCI made one important change in their annual player retentions, and that is removing the A+ category bracket, which earlier had four players. After the retirement of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma from Test and T20I formats, the BCCI doesn’t feel a need to have an A+ category, where, practically, we have only one all-format player, Jasprit Bumrah. So, instead of A+, the grades now start from A. Another important change that BCCI hasn’t disclosed is the contract price. Earlier, the brackets were 7 Cr, 5 Cr, 3 Cr, and 1 Cr, respectively. But now the brackets are changed, and BCCI hasn’t disclosed the annual retainer price.
Team India Players Annual Salary Contract for AY 2026
Grade A
- Jasprit Bumrah
- Ravindra Jadeja
- Shubman Gill
With Grade A now the new top grade, it includes three players, and those are Jasprit Bumrah, Shubman Gill, and Ravindra Jadeja. Shubman Gill, who now leads the Test and ODIs team, and is also a part of the T20I squad sometimes, has been given the highest grade for a player. Jasprit Bumrah remains the only all-format player in this list. Whereas Ravindra Jadeja now plays two formats, and with him in grade A, it is expected that he will also be a part of the ODI setup of the 2027 World Cup.
Grade B
Batters
- Rohit Sharma
- Shreyas Iyer
- Suryakumar Yadav
- Virat Kohli
- Yashasvi Jaiswal
Wicketkeepers
All-Rounders
- Hardik Pandya
- Washington Sundar
Bowlers
- Kuldeep Yadav
- Mohammed Siraj
Grade B includes 11 players, and it is a mix of dual-format players and those who play only ODIs. Rohit Sharma, Shreyas Iyer, and Virat Kohli are the ones who only play ODIs currently, and hence, they are placed in Grade B. Aside from ShRoKo, an exception has been made for Suryakumar Yadav, who plays only the T20I format, but since he is the Captain of the T20I team, he has been placed there. Barring these four, all other plays at least two formats, with Kuldeep and Sundar playing all three formats sometimes.
Grade C
Batters
- Abhishek Sharma
- Rinku Singh
- Ruturaj Gaikwad
- Sai Sudharsan
- Tilak Varma
Wicketkeepers
All-Rounders
- Axar Patel
- Nitish Reddy
- Shivam Dube
Bowlers
- Akash Deep
- Arshdeep Singh
- Harshit Rana
- Prasidh Krishna
- Ravi Bishnoi
- Varun Chakravarthy
Grade C includes a total of 16 players, and these are the players who are either emerging, or are playing just 1 format. So, among emergig players who play more than one format, we have Harshit Rana, Nitish Reddy, Prasidh Krishna, Arshdeep SIngh, and Dhruv Jurel. Whereas all other players play just one format, and that’s mostly T20Is. Interestingly, the list doesn’t include Ishan Kishan, and that’s because has has just made a comeback to the T20I side.
Not Retained
- Rajat Patidar
- Sarfaraz Khan
- Mohammed Shami
- Mukesh Kumar
Team India Players Annual Salary Contract for AY 2026 – Women Team
Grade A
- Deepti Sharma
- Harmanpreet Kaur
- Jemimah Rodrigues
- Smriti Mandhana
B Grade
- Renuka Thakur
- Richa Ghosh
- Shafali Verma
- Sneh Rana
Grade C
- Amanjot Kaur
- Arundhati Reddy
- G Kamalini
- Harleen Deol
- Kashvee Gautam
- Kranti Goud
- Pratika Rawal
- Radha Yadav
- Sree Charani
- Tejal Hasabnis
- Uma Chetry
- Vaishnavi Sharma
- Yastika Bhatia
Thanks for reading! What’s your take on the official salary of the Indian Cricket team players for AY 2026? Please email your thoughts to business@cricalytics.com
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