Indian cricket’s ‘backbone’, the Ranji Trophy, made a much-anticipated return after two years amid the easing COVID-19 situation in the country, providing host of domestic cricketers an opportunity to make their name in red-ball cricket.
BCCI secretary Jay Shah, on Thursday took to Twitter to convey his wishes as India’s premier domestic cricket tournament returned. He wrote, ” Have been eagerly waiting for this day as India Cricket’s premier domestic tournament, the #RanjiTrophy returns. A lot of effort has gone behind the scenes to get our first class cricket back on track, and it is now time to let red-ball take centre stage.
A total of 38 teams are participating and they have been divided into eight Elite Group and one Plate Group. Elite Group comprises four teams each while the remaining six teams are a part of the Plate Group. The top seven teams from the Elite groups will get a direct entry into the quarter-final while the eighth team will have to fight with the topper of Plate Group.
Nine bio-bubbles have been created across nine venues in the country and the players had to quarantine for five days, leaving them only two days of training for the first round beginning on Thursday. That is why, Ishant Sharma who joined the Delhi squad recently would be unavailable for their match against Tamil Nadu.
These matches are of great significance as they give an opportunity to budding cricketers to show their talent and a few veterans to get their form back.
In the fixture between defending champions Saurashtra and record 41-time champions Mumbai, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane would be in action. These two stalwarts would hope to make big scores that come in handy ahead of the Sri Lanka Test series.
It is also set to be the shortest first-class season for most teams with sides only getting three league games, impacting their match fees and leaving them with little room for error. Eight groups of four teams each have been formed at the elite level while six teams will fight it out in the plate group. The knockouts, barring the sole pre-quarterfinal, will be held in the post IPL phase starting May 30.
Karnataka vs Railways, Elite Group C (Chennai).
Hyderabad vs Chandigarh, Elite Group B (Bhubaneswar)
Bengal vs Baroda, Elite Group B (Cuttack)
Kerala vs Meghalaya, Elite Group A (Rajkot)
Gujarat vs Madhya Pradesh, Elite Group A (Rajkot)
Manipur vs Arunachal Pradesh, Plate (Kolkata)
Jammu and Kashmir vs Puducherry, Elite Group C (Chennai)
Saurashtra vs Mumbai, Elite Group D (Ahmedabad)
Odisha vs Goa, Elite Group D (Ahmedabad)
Nagaland vs Sikkim, Plate (Kolkata)
Bihar vs Mizoram, Plate (Kolkata)
Jharkhand vs Chhattisgarh, Elite Group H (Guwahati)
Delhi vs Tamil Nadu, Elite Group H (Guwahati)
Maharashtra vs Assam, Elite Group G (Rohtak)
Vidarbha vs Uttar Pradesh, Elite Group G (Gurugram)
Haryana vs Tripura, Elite Group F (Delhi)
Punjab vs Himachal Pradesh, Elite Group F (Delhi)
Services vs Uttarakhand, Elite Group E (Thiruvananthapuram)
Andhra vs Rajasthan, Elite Group E (Thiruvananthapuram)