MOST SUCCESSFUL TEAMS
Total teams: 38
Total matches: 138
Elite A: Saurashtra, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Vidarbha, Haryana, Services, Manipur
Bengal, Andhra, Mumbai, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Bihar
Elite C: Karnataka, Punjab, Railways, Tamilnadu, Goa, Gujarat, Tripura, Chandigarh
Elite D: Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Baroda, Delhi, Odisha, Pondicherry, JKCA
Plate: Nagaland, Hyderabad, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh Mumbai- 41 times Karnataka- 8 times Delhi- 7 times Holkar/mp- 5 times
Baroda- 5 times
inclusion in the Indian team, often surpassing those who diligently contribute in the domestic season. A noteworthy example is Yashasvi Jaiswal, who earned a Test cap shortly after an outstanding season with the Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2023. In contrast, some of his Mumbai teammates, like Sarfaraz Khan, await their opportunity despite consistent performances in domestic cricket for multiple seasons. The criteria for selection and the benchmarks appear to be in constant flux.
Although the experienced players, 39-year-old Wriddhiman Saha and 38-year-olds Manoj Tiwary and Faiz Fazal, will be aiming to lead their respective teams to victory and retire on a high, Shubham Dubey from Vidarbha will be making his first-class debut and hoping to make it memorable. Dubey, who hails from Nagpur, was recently selected by Rajasthan Royals for a whopping Rs 5.80 crore after his impressive performance in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, where he scored 222 runs in seven matches at a strike rate of 187.28. While he looks forward to the upcoming IPL, the 29-year-old emphasises that his current priority is the Ranji Trophy.
“Red ball cricket is the ultimate in a player’s career, and it’s an immense pride to call yourself a
Ranji Trophy cricketer,” says Dubey. “As a kid, I would watch four-day cricket, and since then, I have always wanted to be a first-class cricketer and play the Ranji Trophy someday. Only good performance in domestic cricket can take you far."
Dubey believes that the Ranji Trophy prepares a cricketer for every situation. “No other tournament tests your skill as much as the Ranji Trophy. While you need to stay in the present for four days, it tests your competency level and how you can approach different situations,” Dubey says.
Missing star factor
Not long ago, top Indian cricketers would feature in the Ranji Trophy regularly. But things have changed drastically over the last few years, with several senior team regulars staying away from the tournament on the pretext of workload management.
“All these players featured in the Ranji Trophy before they became stars, but now they seem to have forgotten that baby,” former India international and erstwhile national selector Sunil Joshi tells Sportstar.
“They should come and play the Ranji Trophy because every cricketer gets to share experiences and knowledge if an Indian player features in a domestic game. Don’t the Australian players feature in their Sheffield Shield, or don’t the England cricketers play in the county leagues? I understand our players need a break, but since they are professionals, they should also make themselves available for the Ranji Trophy,” Joshi says. “I have nothing against anyone, but these cricketers have not missed a single IPL game, so why do you need a rest only when the Ranji Trophy is being played? They cannot pick and choose when it comes to domestic cricket."
Pay parity
Tiwary, a key figure in Bengal