"Is Axar Patel Your Sacrificial Goat"- Twitter rips apart BCCI after Central Contracts List 2025-26

Indian cricket fans are not happy with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) as Axar Patel was handed the Grade B annual contract for the 2025-26 season. The BCCI has on Monday (April 21) the men's central contracts for the 2025-26 season.

Fans have been slamming the BCCI for not doing justice to Axar Patel’s all-round contribution to the India National Cricket Team across the formats. The star all-rounder has been doing exceptionally well with both bat and ball in all three formats of the game for the past few years.

Given his contribution to India’s ICC T20 World Cup 2024 and ICC Champions Trophy 2025 triumphs, apart from being a key player in Tests, fans feel Axar deserves a Grade A central contract. They were critical about Rishabh Pant and Shubman Gill getting the Grade A contract, but not Axar.

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Axar Patel’s Grade B Central Contract sparks outrage among Indian fans

Many fans questioned Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Ravindra Jadeja’s place in Grade A+ as they had already retired from T20I cricket last year. They have been calling the BCCI a corrupt cricket board and demanded Patel’s promotion to either the Grade A+ or Grade A category.

Read Also: "Welcome Back"- Twitter reacts to Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan's return to the BCCI Central Contracts List

The fans have been wondering on which basis Rishabh Pant got the Grade A contract despite playing only Test cricket, as he was mostly benched in the white-ball formats. On the other hand, Axar Patel is regularly playing all three formats and even delivering brilliant performances.

Still, that was not enough for the all-rounder to get a Grade A contract. Given that fans have been urging the Delhi Capitals captain to hire a PR team of apple of BCCI’s eyes like Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Rishabh Pant.

Fans slam BCCI for doing injustice to Axar Patel:

2 clutch Players who won us CT are in Grade B #ShreyasIyer and #AxarPatel Deserved better 💔
BCCI ki mkc pic.twitter.com/8KCbIa3Z1z

— Aryan. (@mishraa2505) April 21, 2025

Tukka players like Siraj, Pant & Gill getting Grade A, meanwhile Captain Surya, 3 format Best player Jaiswal & Mr Dependables Axar & Iyer getting Grade C.@BCCI is high on something.#ShreyasIyer #AxarPatel #YashasviJaiswal #Cricket #IPL

— PIYUSH PAWAR (@im_piyushpawar) April 21, 2025

Axar Patel should get A grade instead of Pant, Pant only plays test matches and sits as replacement in ODIs and t20is even though he doesn't perform in Whiteball

— Hi Hello (@HiHello394592) April 21, 2025

Why is Axar Patel in GradeB and Arshdeep in Grade C in BCCI central contract?? Atleast Axar deserves to be in Grade A and Arshdeep deserves GradeB and then you put Jadeja in A+...wtf @BCCI ?? What's d logic 🤔?? @lonsaikia @ShuklaRajiv plz rethink 🙏 #BCCICentralContract #BCCI pic.twitter.com/LsTUOoKJhn

— Dipanjan Chatterjee (@I_am_DipCh) April 21, 2025

Axar Patel should have been in A or A+, considering his contribution in last few years both with bat and bowl

— Ajax (@Ajaxjacksss) April 21, 2025

Axar Patel being all format all rounder player is Grade B

Daylight robbery for DC Skipper !!

— Virat (@virat_stark) April 21, 2025

How the hell Axar Patel is in Grade C ? He's a three format player.

Same question for Rohit, Kohli and Jadeja. This doesn't make sense at all. https://t.co/9HvZzNUDYP

— Omkar Shrimali (@OmkarShrimali) April 21, 2025

Axar Patel deserve place for A+ grade . He's contribution Last two winning ICC event's Unimaginable with bat& Bowl

He's clutch God

This MDC @BCCI Deserve a Another 10 or 15 years trophyless Only healing My heart's pain 😡 https://t.co/xkvVTcnqZY pic.twitter.com/4CgPX5rBw3

— ジャスティン (@Justin_offcl) April 21, 2025

Axar patel deserved kar ta bhai pant ki jaga 😕

— Raju Khadka 🇮🇳 (@RajuKharka6) April 21, 2025

BCCI is such a corrupt Board where Champions Trophy hero Shreyas Iyer and All format player Axar Patel is in grade B and mugs like Rishabh Pant get grade A just on the basis of Sympathy Quota . https://t.co/Lv8yR5cdHC pic.twitter.com/nJzreUcQz9

— • (@LoftedOffDrive) April 21, 2025

I can’t believe Axar Patel is in B Grade category??
He should’ve been in A if not in A+. Axar performs and plays all three formats.

He is one of 5 current players who plays all three formats regularly.
Bumrah
Axar
Shami
Siraj
Pant

— samy (@SamyCric) April 21, 2025

- Batsman, Bowler and VC of T20i Team
- No.5 Batter and Bowler of the ODI team
- One of the most dependable batsman and bowler of the Test team

Axar Patel deserves to be in A+ or A grade of BCCI central contract. pic.twitter.com/7jJq2MwZeE

— Manjit 𝕏 (@CricManjit) April 21, 2025

Notably, Axar was given the annual contract in the same category even in the last season, so there is no promotion for the all-rounder despite outstanding performance with both bat and ball, which sparked outrage among the fans.

Axar has so far played 14 Tests, 68 ODIs, and 71 T20Is for India. The Indian all-rounder has around 2000 runs and around 200 wickets in international cricket to his name till now.

Read Also: India Test, ODI, T20 squads after BCCI Central Contracts List Announcement

Here’s the full list of BCCI's Central Contracts for the 2024-25 season:

Grade A+: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja

Grade A: Mohammed Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya, Mohammed Shami, Rishabh Pant

Grade B: Suryakumar Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer

Grade C: Rinku Singh, Tilak Verma, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, Washington Sundar, Mukesh Kumar, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Rajat Patidar, Dhruv Jurel, Sarfaraz Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ishan Kishan, Abhishek Sharma, Akash Deep, Varun Chakaravarthy, Harshit Rana

Notably, Grade A+ players are set to get INR7 crore per annum as their salary from the BCCI, while Grade A players get INR5 crore. Grade B players receive INR3 crore annually, and Grade C players are paid INR1 crore. Rishabh Pant has been upgraded to category A for this season.