INDIAN DOMESTIC CRICKET
The BCCI announced several changes to the Indian cricket domestic structure © AFP
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has made key changes to the Indian domestic season from the 2025/26 season and has also announced the schedule for the forthcoming season. Some of these changes include the Duleep Trophy reverting to zonal teams, selected by the zonal selectors, from last year’s format of the four Indian offshoot teams while for the Ranji Trophy only one team will be promoted/relegated from the Plate and Elite Groups respectively.
The changes continue with India’s domestic T20 competition – the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy – now having a Super League stage instead of a traditional knockout. This means that the eight teams who qualify from the group stage will be put in two groups of four teams – Group A and B – and each team will play three league games against the teams in their group. The teams who finish top of their groups respectively will contest the final. This change has also been made to the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy.
Major domestic tournaments namely Vijay Hazare Trophy, Senior Women’s One Day Trophy, and Men’s U23 State A Trophy will follow a different grouping format compared to last year. Until the 2024/25 season, in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, there were three groups of eight teams and two groups of seven. But from this year, there will be four Elite Groups and a Plate Group for these tournaments. The teams have been allotted into their groups after being ranked on various categories including points, wins and NRR.
Teams which rank the lowest amongst these categories are automatically relegated to the Plate Group for the limited over tournaments from the forthcoming season.
The season shall commence from August 28, 2025 with the Duleep Trophy and shall conclude with the Senior Women’s Inter-Zonal Multi-Day Trophy on April 3, 2026, spanning a little over five months.
Key Tournament Dates
Tournament Start Date (League) End Date (League) Start Date (Knockout) End Date (Knockout) Duleep Trophy NA NA 28-Aug-25 15-Sep-25 Irani Cup NA NA 01-Oct-25 05-Oct-25 Ranji Trophy – Elite 15-Oct-25 to 19-Nov-25 (Phase 1) 22-Jan-26 to 01-Feb-26 (Phase 2) 06-Feb-26 28-Feb-26 Ranji Trophy – Plate 15-Oct-25 19-Nov-25 22-Jan-26 26-Jan-26 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy – Elite 26-Nov-25 08-Dec-25 12-Dec-25 18-Dec-25 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy – Plate 26-Nov-25 04-Dec-25 06-Dec-25 06-Dec-25 Vijay Hazare Trophy – Elite 24-Dec-25 08-Jan-26 12-Jan-26 18-Jan-26 Vijay Hazare Trophy – Plate 24-Dec-25 03-Jan-26 06-Jan-26 06-Jan-26 Senior Women’s T20 Trophy – Elite 08-Oct-25 19-Oct-25 25-Oct-25 31-Oct-25 Senior Women’s T20 Trophy – Plate 08-Oct-25 15-Oct-25 17-Oct-25 17-Oct-25 Senior Women’s One Day Trophy – Elite 06-Feb-26 18-Feb-26 22-Feb-26 28-Feb-26 Senior Women’s One Day Trophy – Plate 06-Feb-26 14-Feb-26 16-Feb-26 16-Feb-26
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