The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is expected to announce the list of centrally contracted players in the upcoming days. Middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer is set to regain his central contract after enduring the challenges of domestic cricket and playing a crucial role in India’s ICC Champions Trophy 2025 triumph as their leading run-scorer. However, according to some reports, Ishan Kishan might not receive a central contract.
The central contract retainership list excluded Iyer and Kishan last season because they did not participate in domestic cricket. Iyer has established himself as a force in ODIs while competing for spots in other formats but Kishan has not successfully re-established himself.
“He still has to wait for his return in central contracts. He has worked on sorting out issues but has not done enough to get his position back,” a source said.
Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli Retain A+ Central Contracts
India’s ODI and Test captain, Rohit Sharma, along with Virat Kohli, is expected to retain their A+ central contract worth ₹7 crore. This comes despite their retirement from the T20I format last year after leading India to victory in the T20 World Cup 2024.
Rohit and Kohli will continue to play important roles in India’s Test cricket plans according to this. The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 will end before India embarks on a five-Test series against England on June 20 to begin their World Test Championship (WTC) 2025-27 campaign.
During the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Rohit struggled with the bat, scoring only 31 runs in five innings, while Kohli failed to score more than 50 runs after scoring a century in the Perth Test in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25. There were speculations that Rohit would retire from cricket after he decided not to play the Sydney Test but the experienced batter later said that he has no plans to retire.
