The Ranji Trophy will begin on February 10, with the first phase of the competition to be played until March 15. The second phase of the two-phase tournament will be held from May 30 to June 26.According to the schedule and format released by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), there will be a total number of 64 matches to be played in 62 days across nine centres. Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Rajkot, Delhi, Guwahati, Cuttack, Trivandrum, Chennai and a Haryana centre will host the two-phase championship. 38 teams have been divided into nine groups - eight Elite groups of four teams each and one plate group of six teams. Chandigarh and Meghalaya have been directly placed in the Elite division.
As per the format, Elite teams in a group play against each other, while the Plate teams will clash with only three teams of their group. One team from each Elite team qualifies for the quarter-finals, barring one which will have to play a pre-quarter-final game. The lowest-ranked of the eight qualifiers of Elite teams will have to take on the top-ranked side of the Plate group in the pre-quarterfinals. The quarter-final draw will be held after the pre-quarter-finals. As per the circulated format, a maximum a team can get to play is seven matches while minimum matches will only be three for at least 29 teams across Elite and Plate Groups."We have spread the Ranji Trophy to nine different venues, across the country to mitigate any cross-transmission risk while also ensuring that bio-secure bubbles are not overburdened. While the persistent virus has still breached the bubble we have factored in certain contingency plans drawing from our past experience while formulating this structure," BCCI secretary Jay Shah wrote to the state units on Thursday (February 3).
