The pinnacle of all the domestic competitions in the Indian circuit is back as the Ranji Trophy gets underway as a 38-team event from January 5 onwards. The latest season of the Ranji Trophy will witness two pools - Elite and Plate. While the Elite group has 32 teams divided into four groups of eight, the Plate group comprises six teams in total.
The top two teams from each of the four groups in the Elite division will enter the quarterfinals after playing a total of seven games each whereas the two teams that will finish at the bottom of in each group will be relegated. On the other hand, the top four teams in the Plate competition will qualify for the knockouts and the finalists will be promoted to the Elite division in the next edition.
The Elite division will be played across 48 venues in the country whereas the Plate competition will be contested at five venues. The Elite final will be staged from March 10 and the summit clash in the Plate category will be played from February 17 onwards.
The defending champions Saurashtra find themselves in Group A alongside Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Manipur, Rajasthan, Services, and Vidarbha whereas Bengal, who finished as the runners-up in the previous season have been placed in Group B along with Andhra, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Mumbai, and Uttar Pradesh.
With India slated to host England in a five-match Test series at home, the initial few games in the tournament will be a key opportunity for players to impress the Indian selectors and make a case for Test selection.
Elite Divison:
Group A:
Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Manipur, Rajasthan, Saurashtra, Services, Vidarbha
Group B:
Andhra, Assam, Bengal, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Mumbai, Uttar Pradesh
Group C:
Chandigarh, Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka, Punjab, Railways, Tamil Nadu, Tripura
Group D:
Baroda, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Puducherry, Uttarakhand
Plate Division:
Hyderabad, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Sikkim
