Axar Patel has been demoted to Grade C in the latest BCCI annual player retainership – but it’s a move that makes little sense.
The BCCI’s retainership system is designed to reward performance, consistency, and sustained involvement with the national side over a given period. For the 2025–26 season, the board has made several adjustments, most notably scrapping the A-plus category following the retirements of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. Last year, both senior batters were joined in that top bracket by Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah, who have now been placed in the A category.
Axar Patel’s inexplicable demotion to Category C
Last season, Axar was among the players earning INR 3 crore annually, in the B category, alongside Suryakumar Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shreyas Iyer. In the latest list, however, he finds himself grouped with Ruturaj Gaikwad, Tilak Verma, Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Dhruv Jurel, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Abhishek Sharma, Sai Sudharsan and Ravi Bishnoi.
Most players in this bracket are either specialists in a single format or are on the fringes of the national side. Axar’s inclusion among them stands out. While the precise window considered for the retainership has not been officially clarified, Axar has featured in 34 matches across all three formats since the start of 2025, including 22 T20Is and a Test. In that period, only six other Indian players have appeared in all three formats at least once: Kuldeep, Mohammed Siraj, Shubman Gill, Washington Sundar, Prasidh and Reddy.
The comparison becomes more stark when the number of games is taken into account. Prasidh and Reddy, who are also placed in Category C, played only 10 and 11 matches respectively, largely as injury replacements. Axar, by contrast, is one of just three Indian players to have played more than 30 matches in the same timeframe, alongside Gill, the current Test and ODI captain, and Kuldeep, India’s first-choice spinner in Tests and ODIs.
His contributions have not been limited to appearances alone. Across formats, Axar claimed 36 wickets last year, finishing as India’s sixth-highest wicket-taker. He also scored a crucial 52 while batting at No.5 in the ODI against England, taking the team over the line in the run chase of 249.
Axar has also continued to be trusted with leadership responsibilities. He was appointed vice-captain of the T20I side for the home series against England in early 2025, before being replaced by Gill for the Asia Cup. Following Gill’s omission from the T20 World Cup squad, Axar was reinstated as deputy to Suryakumar.
Shreyas’s presence in the B category offers an interesting contrast. Shreyas currently features only in India’s ODI setup, where he played 14 matches in 2025. While he remains one of India’s key batters in the format and a key figure in the middle order, but when viewed alongside Axar, he has had a smaller impact.
Considering Axar’s all-format relevance, match output along with leadership role, his placement in Category C is difficult to understand. If the retainership is indeed meant to reflect consistency and importance within the national setup, his demotion remains one of the most puzzling decisions in the latest BCCI list.
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