T20 World Cup Groups Explained: Who Can Reach Super 8
Bumrah, India’s leading pacer across formats and the team’s batsman, was in the A+ category, as was Jadeja. For Gill, retaining the A-level central contracts is a major source of relief after being dropped from India’s T20 squad just ahead of the home T20 World Cup in 2026. Like Kohli and Rohit, Jadeja has retired from T20Is but still features in Tests and ODIs, where he has been in poor form of late. TOI reported in its January 21 edition that the BCCI is set to undertake a major overhaul of its annual central contract system with sweeping changes that could significantly reshape the hierarchy of India’s elite cricketers for the 2025-26 season. The Ajit Agarkar-led national selection committee has proposed scrapping the prestigious Grade A+ category, which was introduced completely in 2018, a move that has directly affected senior followers of Kohli and Rohit.Including Rohit and Virat, there are 11 players To whom BCCI will award ‘B’ grade central contracts. Others in this category are: Off-spinning allrounder Washington Sundar, Test opener and ODI ‘keeper-batter KL Rahul, senior pacer Mohammed Siraj, white-ball all-rounder Hardik Pandya, India’s Test vice-captain Rishabh Pant, Chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav, India’s Test and ODI opener India Yashas’ captain T. and ODI middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer.16 players will be given Grade C contracts – Axar Patel, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Dhruv Jurel, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Ravij B. Sharma, Saitura B. Sharma Gaikwad.Jemimah promoted to Category A contractMeanwhile, for the Indian women’s team, the biggest winner in the case of annual retention for 2025-26 is India’s 2025 World Cup semi-final hero Jemimah Rodrigues, who has been promoted to the A category, where she joins captain Harmanpreet Kaur, vice-captain Smriti Allrounder Deephana and. Rodrigues, who captained Delhi Capitals to the final of the recently concluded Women’s Premier League, made a brilliant 127 not out off 134 balls to set up a stunning five-wicket win over Australia in the semi-final of the 2025 Women’s ODI World Cup held at the DY Mu Patil Stadium in Navimbai in October-November last year. Prior to this match, the Mumbai batsman smashed 76 not out off 55 balls against New Zealand to help India win in a do-or-die game for them at the same venue.List of men’s contracts for 2025-26Class A: Jasprit Bumrah, Shubman Gill and Ravindra Jadeja.Grade B: Washington Sundar, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Mohammed Siraj, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer. Grade C: Axar Patel, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Dhruv Jurel, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Abhishek Sharma, Sai Sudarshan, Ravi B.List of female players for 2025-26 contractsClass A: Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma.Grade B: Renuka Thakur, Shafali Verma, Richa Ghosh, Sneh Rana.Grade C: Radha Yadav, Amanjot Kaur, Pratika Rawal, Kranti Gaud, Uma Chhetri (wk), Arundhati Reddy, Shree Charini, Yastika Bhatia, Harleen Deol, Kashvi Gautam, G Kamlini (wk), Vaishnavi Sharma, Tejal Hasbnis.