The senior men’s domestic First-Class season will return in full swing with the 2025-26 Ranji Trophy, starting October 15 across the country. 38 teams will be back in contention with defending champions, Vidarbha, marked as the hot favourites after also claiming the Irani Cup title at home in Nagpur earlier this month.
With a whopping 138 matches to be played, the vast spread will be split in two with the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and the Vijay Hazare Trophy wedged in between the legs.
Ranji Trophy 2025-26: Format
The competition is split into two divisions: the Elite category, with 32 teams in four groups, and the Plate category, with 6 teams in one group. All teams play a single round-robin within their groups. In the Elite division, the top two teams from each group advance to the quarter-finals (8 teams total). In the Plate division, the top four teams move on to the Plate knockouts. A separate playoff system determines the final rankings for the lower Plate teams and the losers of the Plate semi-finals.
Ranji Trophy 2025-26: Groups and squads
Elite A: TN, Baroda, Jharkhand, Odisha, UP, Andhra, Nagaland
Elite B: Saurashtra, Chandigarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, MP, Punjab, Goa
Elite C: Gujarat, Haryana, Services, Bengal, Railways, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Assam
Elite D: Mumbai, J&K, HP, Delhi, Hyderabad, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Puducherry
Plate: Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim, Manipur, Arunachal
List of all squads announced (for first round)
Karnataka
Mayank Agarwal (captain), Karun Nair, R. Smaran, K.L. Shrijith (wk), K.V. Aneesh, Abhinav Manohar, Nikin Jose, V. Vyshak, Vidwath Kaverappa, Shreyas Gopal, Kruthik Krishna (wk), Shikar Shetty, Mohsin Khan, Abhilash Shetty, M. Venkatesh.
Vidarbha
Akshay Wadkar (captain), Atharva Taide, Aman Mokhade, Danish Malewar, Yash Rathod (vc), Harsh Dubey, Parth Rekhade, Yash Thakur, Nachiket Bhute, Darshan Nalkande, Aditya Thakare, Yash Kadam, Shivam Deshmukh (wk), Praful Hinge, Akshay Karnewar, Dhruv Shorey, R Samarth.
Jammu and Kashmir
Paras Dogra (captain), Shubham Khajuria, Rohit Sharma, Abdul Samad, Vivrant Sharma, Qamran Iqbal, Kawalpreet Singh, Sahil Lotra, Abid Mushtaq, Vanshaj Sharma, Yawer Hassan, Musaif Aijaz, Sunil Kumar, Umran Malik, Umar Nazir, Kanhaiya Wadhawan, Yudhvir Singh, Mujtaba Yousuf, Lone Nasir Muzaffar, Auqib Nabi.
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Odisha
Subhranshu Senapati (captain), Swastik Samal (Vice-Captain), Gourav Choudhary, Sandeep Pattanaik, Govinda Poddar, Aashirwad Swain (WK), Rajesh Dhupar (WK), Anil Parida, Sambit Baral, Sumit Sharma, Badal Biswal, Sunil Roul, Rajesh Mohanty, Tarani Sa, Tapas Das.
Chhattisgarh
Amandeep Khare (captain), Ayush Pandey, Aditya Sarwate, Ajay Mandal, Anuj Tiwari, Arafat Khan, Ashish Chouhan, Ashutosh Singh, Prateek Yadav, M Ravi Kiran, Sahban Khan, Sanjeet Desai, Shashank Chandrakar (wicketkeeper), Shashank Singh, Shubham Agrawal, Sourabh Majumdar, Vasudev Bareth.
Madhya Pradesh
Rajat Patidar (captain), Yash Dubey, Harsh Gawli, Shubham Sharma, Himanshu Mantri, Harpreet Singh, Venkatesh Iyer, Sagar Solanki, Kumar Kartikey, Saransh Jain, Adheer Pratap, Aryan Pandey.
Jharkhand
Ishan Kishan (captain), Virat Singh (vice-captain), Sharandeep Singh, Shikhar Mohan, Kumar Kushagra (wicketkeeper), Kumar Suraj, Anukul Roy, Manishi, Vikas Kumar, Jatin Kumar Pandey, Vikash Singh, Aditya Singh, Sahil Raj, Shubham Singh, Aryaman Sen, Rishav Raj.
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Tamil Nadu
N. Jagadeesan (captain), Pradosh Ranjan Paul (v-c), B. Indrajith, M. Shahrukh Khan, R. Vimal Khumar, B. Sachin, C. Andre Siddarth, R.S. Ambrish, P. Vidyuth, D.T. Chandrasekar, Sandeep Warrier, Gurjapneet Singh, C.V. Achyuth, H. Trilok Nag, J. Hemchudesan, G. Ajitesh (wk).
Mumbai
Shardul Thakur (captain), Ayush Mhatre, Musheer Khan, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Akhil Herwadkar, Ajinkya Rahane, Sarfaraz Khan, Siddhesh Lad, Suved Parkar, Suryansh Shedge, Akash Parkar, Tushar Deshpande, Sylvester Dsouza, Irfan Umair, Roystan Dias, Pratik Mishra, Akash Anand (wk), Hardik Tamore (wk), Prasad Pawar (wk), Shams Mulani, Tanush Kotian, Himanshu Singh, Atharva Ankolekar, Ishan Mulchandani.
Hyderabad
Tilak Varma, Rahul Singh, C.V. Milind, Tanmay Agarwal, M. Abhirath Reddy, Himateja, Varun Goud, Tanay Thyagarajan, Rohit Rayudu, Saranu Nishant, Punnaiah, Aniketh Reddy, Kartikeya Kak, Ali Kachi Diamond (wk), Rahul Radesh (wk).
Nagaland
Sedezhalie Rupreo, Nzanthung Mozhui, Hem Bahadur Chetri, Jonathan Rongsen, Tohuka Zhimo, Imiwati Lemtur, Yugandhar Singh, Odilemba Kichu, Dip Borah, Saurav Kumar, Vino G Zhimo, Tahmeed Rahman, and guest players Nischal Dega, Chetan Bisht, Ronit More.
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Bengal
Abhimanyu Easwaran (c), Abishek Porel (vc/wk), Sudip Kumar Gharami, Anustup Majumdar, Sudip Chatterjee, Sumanta Gupta, Saurabh Kumar Singh, Vishal Bhati, Mohammed Shami, Akash Deep, Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal, Shakir Habib Gandhi (wk), Ishan Porel, Kazi Junaid Saifi, Rahul Prasad, Sumit Mohanta and Vikash Singh.
Ranji Trophy 2025-26: Schedule – First Round
October 15-18, 2025
- Uttar Pradesh v Andhra – Green Park Stadium, Kanpur
- Tamil Nadu v Jhakhand – Sri Ramakrishna College of Arts and Science Ground, Coimbatore
- Odisha v Baroda – Barabati Stadium, Cuttack
- Nagaland v Vidarbha – BCCI COE Ground 1, Bengaluru
- Kerala v Maharashtra – Sports Hub International Cricket stadium, Trivandrum
- Goa v Chandigarh – Goa Cricket Association Academy, Porvorim
- Madhya Pradesh v Punjab – Emerald Heights International School Ground, Indore
- Saurashtra v Karnataka – Niranjan Shah Stadium, Rajkot
- Services v Tripura – Airforce Complex ground, Palam, New-Delhi
- Gujarat v Assam – Narendra Modi Stadium Ground ‘A’, Motera, Ahmedabad
- Bengal v Uttarakhand – Eden Gardens, Kolkata
- Railways v Haryana – C K Pithawala Ground, Surat
- Pondicherry v Himachal Pradesh – Siechem Stadium, Puducherry
- J&K v Mumbai – Sher E Kashmir Cricket Stadium, Srinagar
- Rajasthan v Chhattisgarh – Madan Paliwal Miraj Sports Centre, Rajsamand
- Hyderabad v Delhi – NexGen Cricket Ground, Hyderabad
