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. 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. 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. 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
