Ranji Trophy in Two Parts, White-Ball Format Gets a Fresh Twist

The Ranji Trophy will be played in two phases this time. The first phase will start on October 15 and go on till November 19. After a break, the second phase will begin on January 22. The BCCI took this decision in a recent meeting, saying that splitting the tournament will help players manage their workload better. The break in between will also give them time to rest and recover.

SMAT and Vijay Hazare Trophy During the Break

While the Ranji Trophy takes a pause, the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and the Vijay Hazare Trophy will be played between mid-November and mid-January. The SMAT and the Senior Women’s T20 knockouts will follow a Super League format. In this format, each team will play three matches, and the best teams from Group A and Group B will meet in the final. Officials said this change was made to make the tournament more fun and competitive.

Changes in Team Groups

For the men’s and women’s one-day and T20 matches, the bottom six teams from the 2024–25 season will now play in the Plate group. At the end of the season, the best team from the Plate group will move up to the Elite group, and the lowest-ranked Elite team will drop down to the Plate group for the next season. For multi-day men’s tournaments, both in senior and junior levels, the current rule stays the sameone team will be promoted and one will be relegated each season.

Ranji Trophy 2025–26: Group Division, Zonal Revival, and Key Updates

The Duleep Trophy and Senior Women’s Challenger Trophy will once again feature six traditional zonal teams: North, East, North East, Central, West, and South. Unlike recent seasons, where national selectors picked the squads, this time zonal selection committees will handle team selections, following the older format. The Duleep Trophy will kick off the 2025–26 domestic calendar in September, while the Irani Cup is scheduled from October 1–5.

Group	Teams
Elite A	Tamil Nadu, Baroda, Jharkhand, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, 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, Himachal, Delhi, Hyderabad, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Puducherry
Plate	Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh

Equal Pay for Match Scorers

In a move toward fairness, BCCI is working on ensuring equal pay for scorers at international venues. Under the new policy, scorers will earn ₹25,000 per day for Tests and ODIs, and ₹12,500 per day for T20 Internationals.

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India vs New Zealand – White-Ball Series 2026

Match	Date	Venue
ODI 1	Jan 11, 2026	Hyderabad
ODI 2	Jan 14, 2026	Rajkot
ODI 3	Jan 18, 2026	Indore
T20I 1	Jan 21, 2026	Nagpur
T20I 2	Jan 23, 2026	Ranchi
T20I 3	Jan 25, 2026	Guwahati
T20I 4	Jan 28, 2026	Visakhapatnam
T20I 5	Jan 31, 2026	Thiruvananthapuram