Ranji Trophy 2022 league phase to be held from February 16-March 5: Report

The knockout stage of the tournament will take place after the completion of IPL 2022.

The league stage of the Ranji Trophy 2022 season is set to be held from February 16 to March 5, as per a revised schedule prepared by the BCCI. Earlier the tournament was supposed to begin on January 13, but the ongoing third wave of COVID-19 pandemic forced BCCI to postpone it.

Not only was Ranji Trophy postponed, but other tourneys like Col. CK Nayudu Trophy and the Senior Women’s Challenger Trophy were also postponed, while the knockouts of the Cooch Behar Trophy were deferred.

The Ranji Trophy 2022 featuring 38 teams is likely to be held at venues like Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Trivandrum, Cuttack, Chennai, Guwahati, Hyderabad, and Rajkot. The format has been tweaked and there will be eight groups of four teams each with the plate group comprising six teams.

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No red-ball cricket has taken place in India since the Ranji Trophy final in March 2020.

The knockout stages of the Ranji Trophy will be played in June. This has been done to avoid any conflict with the IPL 2022. However, with monsoons expected in June and July, the BCCI might look to host the knockout stages in either Chennai or Bengaluru.

With the IPL scheduled to begin in Mumbai on March 27, the Board wanted to finish off the league stage latest by the first week of March, so that the players can join their respective IPL teams soon after the Ranji Trophy league stage.

While the BCCI compensated the domestic cricketers for the cancellation of the Ranji Trophy last season, the news of the tournament being held this year will bring much joy to them.

(PTI inputs)