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The reports claim that Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have been pushed from the A+ to the B category in the latest BCCI annual contracts. With both of them already retired from Test and T20I cricket, respectively, the move does not come as any surprise since the top bracket in most contracts is meant for players active in at least two formats. As per a report by Dainik Jagran, the BCCI has also struck off the A+ category, and three categories remain: A, B, and C levels, with Category A being the highest.

The Indian test and ODI team captain Shubman Gill, star pacer Jasprit Bumrah, and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja are the only players included in Category A. But the Indian T20I team captain Suryakumar Yadav has been included in Category B of the BCCI annual contract list, along with KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Mohammed Siraj, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Shreyas Iyer.

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Category C consists of the players 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 Bishnoi, and Ruturaj Gaikwad.

Notably, Ishan Kishan was not present in any of these categories, and doubts have emerged over his exclusion from the annual contract list. This is despite his selection for the T20 World Cup and a fine show against New Zealand in recent times.

• Grade A: Shubman Gill, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja.

• Grade B: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Washington Sundar, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Mohammed Siraj, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer.

• Grade C: Axar Patel, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Dhruv Jurail, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Abhishek Sharma, Sai Sudarshan, Ravi Bishnoi, Ruturaj Gaikwad.

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• Grade 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 Goud, Uma Chetry, Arundhati Reddy, Shree Charani, Yastika Bhatia, Harleen Deol, Kashvee Gautam, G Kamalini, Vaishnavi Sharma, Tejal Hasabnis