BCCI Central Contracts: Two stars are to be awarded Big Promotion – Both play for the same IPL 2025 team: Report

According to BCCI sources, by the end of this week, the Central contracts for the 2025–26 season are expected to announce that the Control Board for Cricket in India (BCCI). According to sources, star spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Exer Patel are expected to be promoted from Grade B to Grade A. The pair is currently playing for the capitals of Delhi in IPL 2025. The contract is expected to return to the contract list even after being dropped for the 2024–25 season. Sources further said that senior players Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah are likely to maintain their places in A grade.

Kuldeep and Ekar are among the top artists in India during their two recent ICC title win-ICC T20 World Cup 2024 and ICC Champions Trophy 2025.

In the T20 World Cup, Kuldeep took the best figures of 3/19 with an average 10 wickets of 13.90 and an economy rate of 6.95. In the Champions Trophy, he claimed an average of 7 wickets at 31.85, with an economy rate of 4.79 and the best figures of 3/40.

India’s leading spin-bouling all-rounder, Axar Patel contributed significantly to both tournaments. In eight matches and five innings during the T20 World Cup 2024, he scored an average of 23.00 in five innings and 92 runs at a strike rate of 139.39. He also took the best figures of 3/23 with an average of 9 wickets in 19.22 and economy rate of 7.86. His 47-run counter-Hamla proved to be important in the final against South Africa.

In the ICC CT 2025, Exer scored 109 runs in five innings at the average of 27.25 batting in five innings with a strike rate of around 74 in Dubai’s testing conditions.

He also made a case for himself as India’s most stingy spinner, took five wickets and accepted only 4.35 per over. His bowling average was also 39.20. With these two titles victory and remarkable contribution, Exer has sealed himself to a permanent space in the Indian-set as an impact-making star. Exer has also been promoted under the captaincy of Delhi Capital (DC) in the Indian Premier League (IPL), and with five wins in six matches, he has left for a great start.

Shreyas Iyer performed some memorable demonstrations despite being removed from central contracts last year, winning the IPL for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) as a captain, winning the Ranji Trophy, Iranian Cup and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (Smat) as a captain in domestic cricket. This year, before India became the top run-song in the ICC Champions Trophy title victory during the England series this year, Iyer scored heavily in all formats in domestic cricket, with 243 runs and two half-centuries in five matches. In eight ODIs this year, he has scored 424 runs at an average of 53.00 with four fifties. The batsman has left for a good start as the captain of Punjab Kings (PBK), who has so far won four out of six matches and scored 250 runs in six matches with three fifties.

Rohit and Virat, both retired from the T20I format, are likely to continue in the A category, which recently played an important role in India’s White-Ball winning win. While Rohit scored 257 runs in eight matches during the T20 World Cup 2024, Virat scored 76 runs in the final against SA after a disappointing tournament.

During the Champions Trophy, Virat was well during the run-chase against Pakistan and Australia, scoring 218 runs in five matches with a century and fifty. Rohit also started the Quickfire during the tournament, scoring 180 in five innings, which led to a 76 -run knock in the final against New Zealand.

Bumrah, who last played for India in the Sydney Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and returned to the set-up Mumbai Indians (MI) in the ongoing IPL, is an all-format star for India and looks invincible. He had a great BGT campaign away from home against Australia, with 32 wickets in five matches.

He finished 2024 with 86 wickets in 21 International Games, the most by any bowler, including the ‘Player of the Tournament’ award in the T20 World Cup 2024, where he took 15 important wickets in eight matches on an average of 8.26.