The premier first-class competition, the Ranji Trophy, will kickstart on January 5, 2024. This is according to the calendar for the forthcoming domestic cricket season (2023–24) that was issued by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
Ranji Trophy 2024 will last 70 days, ending on March 14; the league round will end on February 19 and the knockout matches will start on February 23.
The Duleep Trophy will kick off the Indian domestic season from June 28 to July 16, and the Deodhar Trophy will follow from July 24 to August 4, according to Cricbuzz. October 1–5 will see the annual Irani Cup, which will include the Ranji champions (Saurashtra) and the rest of India.
The Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 competition will take place from October 16 to November 6, while the Vijay Hazare Trophy 50-over competition will follow from November 23 to December 15.
There will be two divisions in both white-ball tournaments: Elite and Plate. Three groups of eight teams will make up the premier division, while two groups of seven teams will make up the bottom tier. Two pre-quarterfinals, four quarterfinals, two semifinals, and the final will all be played in the course of the contest.
For the knockout stage, the top two teams from each of the five groups will advance. According to their points, victories, and net run rate (NRR), the group winners will be ranked 1–5 and move on directly to the quarterfinals. The teams in second place will be ranked 6–10 using the same standards. The team in sixth place will advance directly to the quarterfinals along with the other group winners, while teams in seventh through tenth place will play in the pre-quarterfinals.
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More about Ranji Trophy 2024
In the Ranji Trophy, there will also be two divisions: Elite and Plate. The Elite division will consist of four groups of eight teams and the Plate division will consist of one group of six teams.
An Elite squad may participate in up to 10 multi-day games: seven league games, then the semifinal, final, and quarterfinal. There will not be any merging of the Elite and Plate teams during the Ranji Trophy knockout stage, unlike the white-ball competitions.
According to the pairings: A1 vs. C2, B1 vs. D2, C1 vs. A2, and D1 vs. B2, the top two teams from each of the four Elite groups will automatically qualify for the quarterfinals.
The top four teams in the Plate division will face off in the semifinals using the customary matchups of No. 1 vs. No. 4 and No. 2 vs. No. 3. Notably, the top two clubs from all the Elite Groups (A/B/C/D & E) combined, based on points, bonus points, wins, and quotient, will be demoted to the Plate Group, while the champions of the Plate Group will be elevated to the Elite Group in the upcoming 2024–25 season.
Ranji Groups
Elite Group A: Winners; QF loser Rank 4; Elite Rank 9, 16, 17, 24, 25; and Plate Rank 2. The teams in this group are Saurashtra, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Vidarbha, Haryana, Services, and Manipur.
Elite Group B: Runners-up; QF loser Rank 3; Elite Rank 10, 15, 18, 23, 26; and Plate Rank 1. The teams in this group are Bengal, Andhra, Mumbai, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, and Bihar.
Elite Group C: SF loser Rank 1; QF loser Rank 2; Elite Rank 11, 14, 19, 22, 27; and Elite Rank 30. The teams in this group are Karnataka, Punjab, Railways, Tamil Nadu, Goa, Gujarat, Tripura, and Chandigarh.
Elite Group D: SF loser Rank 2; QF loser Rank 1; Elite Rank 12, 13, 20, 21, 28, 29. The teams in this group are Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Baroda, Delhi, Odisha, Pondicherry, and Jammu and Kashmir.
Plate Group: Elite Rank 31, 32; Plate Rank 3, 4, 5, 6. The teams in this group are Nagaland, Hyderabad, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Mizoram, and Arunachal Pradesh.
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