Jay Shah, the secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), on Thursday said that a lot of hard work went behind the scenes to get Ranji Trophy back on track.
India’s premier red-ball domestic tournament Ranji Trophy resumed after a hiatus of two years on Thursday.
Jay Shah: A Lot Of Effort Behind Getting First Class Cricket Back On Track
India’s premium red-ball tournament, Ranji Trophy, is returning back to India after a two-year-long gap. The Board of Control for Cricket in India was forced to cancel the tournament last year owing to restrictions imposed by Covid-19. However, the board has this time decided to host the league in two phases, pre IPL and post IPL.
BCCI secretary Jay Shah, on Thursday, took to Twitter to convey his wishes as India’s premier domestic cricket tournament returned.
“Have been eagerly waiting for this day as India Cricket’s premier domestic tournament, the #RanjiTrophy returns. A lot of effort has gone behind the scenes to get our first-class cricket back on track, and it is now time to let red-ball take centre stage. Good luck, everyone,” Jay Shah tweeted.
The Ranji Trophy would be held in two phases and now it has been confirmed that the pre-Indian Premier League (IPL) phase would run from February 10 to March 15. The post-IPL-phase would run from May 30 to June 26. The Ranji Trophy this season would see 64 matches being played across 62 days.
Ajinkya Rahane’s Delhi To Play Against Cheteshwar Pujara’s Saurashtra In A High Voltage Clash
There are eight Elite Groups and one Plate Group. There would be four teams in Elite Groups and six teams would make up the Plate Group. One team from each Elite Group will qualify for the quarterfinal stages. The lowest-ranked of the eight qualified teams will have to play a pre-quarterfinal with the top team from the Plate Group.
In a high-voltage clash, Saurashtra and Mumbai are locking horns in the Ranji Trophy and the contest is witnessing Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara squaring off on February 17. BCCI has selected Thumba, Delhi, Rohtak, Gurugram, Rajkot, Cuttack, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Sultanpur, Kolkata, and Guwahati as the cities to conduct the Ranji Trophy league.
Mumbai skipper Prithvi Shaw was dismissed for 1 against Saurashtra, while Ajinkya Rahane is batting on 38. Bengal’s Ishan Porel has picked up 3/31 against Baroda. Under-19 Captain Yash Dhull is batting on 84* against Tamil Nadu whose pacer Sandeep Warrier has 2/54. Sreesanth is wicketless so far against Meghalaya. Mayank Agarwal and Devdutt Padikkal fell cheaply against Railways. Jammu Kashmir’s Umran Malik has 2/24 against Pondicherry and Maharashtra’s Rahul Tripathi was dismissed for 2 against Assam.