The Ranji Trophy India's premier domestic first-class cricket championship played in India and organized annually by the Board of Control for Cricket in India is all set to commence from today. 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. Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara will play for Mumbai and Saurashtra respectively. Hanuma Vihari and Mayank Agarwal, the highest run-getter of 2022-23, will be leading Andhra and Karnataka respectively.Kuldeep Yadav and Rinku Singh will be back in the mix depending on national commitments. Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav will turn up for Delhi and Vidarbha respectively. In the Plate group, Tilak Varma will lead Hyderabad when available.
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
