How Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja Got BCCI's A+ Contract Despite T20 Retirement

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli figure in A+ category but it remains to be seen if the Mumbai batter will be asked to lead the team in England

The BCCI on Monday retained megastars Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in the top bracket of its annual players contract list, less than 24 hours after they played sublime knocks to win IPL games for their respective franchises. The out-of-favour duo of Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan also returned to the fold in lower brackets in a 34-strong list of centrally-contracted players, which also includes pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja in the highest-paid A+ category. Iyer and keeper-batter Ishan Kishan were dropped from the list last year for allegedly ignoring domestic cricket.

Both Rohit and Kohli figure in A+ category but it remains to be seen if the Mumbai batter will be asked to lead the team in England in the upcoming five-Test series when his red ball form has been patchy.

The BCCI mandarins are however tight-lipped on the issue since head coach Gautam Gambhir's view will also matter in taking a final decision.

The BCCI offers contracts in four categories: A+, A, B and C with annual retainership valuation of Rs 7 crore, Rs 5 crore, Rs 3 crore and Rs 1 crore respectively. It is learnt that national selectors after discussion with head coach Gambhir and secretary Devajit Saikia had prepared the contract list at least two weeks back but held back the announcement.

Interestingly, it was announced hours after both veterans hit sparkling knocks -- especially skipper Rohit, who was going through a lean patch. While Kohli hit an unbeaten 73-run knock against Punjab Kings. Rohit came up with an unbeaten 76-run knock against Chennai Super Kings.

Iyer was included in the B category while wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan made a comeback in category C.