Ranji Trophy to commence from 10th of February

The Ranji Trophy will commence its first phase from February 10th and continue until March 15th before the window in the middle opens up for the IPL. The tournament will resume its second phase from May 30th while it will continue until June 26th.

The BCCI released the schedule and the format of the tournament and going by it, there will be 64 matches which are to be played across a span of 62 days in 9 different venues.

Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Rajkot, Delhi, Guwahati, Cuttack, Trivandrum, Chennai and Haryana will be playing host to the most prestigious domestic competition in India.

Going by the format released, there will be eight groups in the Elite division that will be further assorted into four teams wherein the Plate division will witness six teams being clubbed together.

As the format suggests, every team in an Elite group will be playing each other and the topper of the groups will directly qualify for the quarter-finals. However, the lowest ranked team amongst the Elite Group will have to play the top ranked team of the Plate group in a pre-quarter final to make the cut for the quarter-finals.

The Ranji will feature two phases, straddled equally on both sides of the IPL. The first phase will witness the group league fixtures while the second stage will see the knock-outs being played out.

Ranji Groupings:

·       Elite A in Rajkot: Gujarat, MP, Kerala and Meghalaya

·       Elite B in Cuttack: Bengal, Baroda, Hyderabad and Chandigarh

·       Elite C in Chennai: Karnataka, Railways, J & K and Pondicherry

·       Elite D in Ahmedabad: Saurashtra, Mumbai, Odisha and Goa

·       Elite E in Trivandrum: Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Services and Uttarakhand

·       Elite F in Delhi: Punjab, HP, Haryana and Tripura

·       Elite G in Haryana: Vidarbha, UP, Maharashtra and Assam

·       Elite H in Guwahati: Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand and Chhattishgarh

·       Plate in Kolkata: Bihar, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh