Ranji Trophy 2014-15 - A quick digest

The Vinay Kumar-led Karnataka team will start as favourites. © kareem

India's premier domestic tourney, Ranji Trophy, is set to commence with teams from all parts of India gearing up to compete in the 81st edition of the tournament.

How it started

Named after KS Ranjitsinhji, an Indian prince who represented England in 15 Test matches, the first edition of the tournament was played in 1934-35. Bombay emerged champions of the maiden edition and since then, have gone on to win 39 times, most by a team in the history of the Ranji Trophy.

Format of the tournament

Since it's inception, the Ranji Trophy has gone through several changes, the last of which happened in 2012-13. It is now played in a three-group format with nine teams in each group. Group A and Group B consist of the top-tier sides and will have three teams progressing to the quarterfinals while only the top two sides from Group C make it to the knockout stages.

In addition to this, the top two teams from Group C will be promoted to the top-tier groups in the following year while the bottom-placed team in Group A and Group B will be relegated to Group C.

Each match in the round-robin stage with be played for four days while the knock-out games will be five-day affairs. In case no team is able to take a first innings lead in the knockout stages, the match will be extended to the 6th day to determine the winner based on 1st innings lead. In case there is no definite winner even after the 6th day, a coin toss will determine the winner.

The Groups

Group A: Karnataka (reigning champions), Bengal, Mumbai, Railways, Uttar Pradesh, Baroda, Tamil Nadu, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh.
Group B: Maharashtra, Punjab, Gujarat, Saurashtra, Rajasthan, Delhi, Vidarbha, Haryana, Odisha.
Group C: Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Hyderabad, Andhra, Assam, Tripura, Jharkhand, Services.

Who have been promoted and relegated for the 2014-15 season?

Jammu & Kashmir (quarter-finalists in 2014-15) and Maharashtra (finalists in 2013-14), were the two teams to earn a promotion this season while Services (Group B last place) and Jharkhand (Group A last place) were relegated to Group C.

Points system for current season

• Outright win: 6 points
• Bonus Point (Win by an innings or 10 wickets): 1 point
• Securing 1st innings lead without an outright win: 3 points
• Conceding 1st innings lead without an outright loss: 1 point
• No result without a first innings lead: 1 point each
• Tie in first innings without outright result: 1 point each
• Tie in both innings : 2 points each
• Loss: 0 points.

The dates

The 2014-15 season of Ranji Trophy will start on December 7th, 2014 while the final will be from March 8th, 2015. Click here for the full schedule.

While the tournament is generally held from October to January, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decided to postpone the start to December this year and organised the domestic One-Day competition earlier, with an eye on finalising the ODI squad for the 2015 World Cup in Australia-New Zealand.

The transfers

Mohammad Kaif - Uttar Pradesh to Andhra
Arun Karthik - Tamil Nadu to Assam
Ramesh Powar - Rajasthan to Gujarat
Rashmi Rajan Parida - Vidharbha to Himachal Pradesh
Amit Verma - Karnataka to Kerala
KB Pawan - Tripura to Kerala
Sudeep Tyagi - Uttar Pradesh to Saurashtra
S Badrinath - Tamil Nadu to Vidharbha
Rakesh Dhruv - Gujarat to Vidharbha
Ganesh Sathish - Karnataka to Vidharbha

Teams to watch out for

Karnataka: They won all the domestic competitions last year barring the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament. The high-flying team, led by Vinay Kumar also retained the Vijay Hazare trophy this season. Going by the performance of some the Karnataka players in the recently concluded Deodhar Trophy, there is no doubt that Karnataka start as favourites.

Delhi: Despite having a power-packed side, Delhi haven't quite been at their best in the recent editions of the Ranji Trophy. With top players like Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag and Ashish Nehra out of the World Cup scheme of things, they will be driven to give their best in the premium Indian competition and with nothing to lose, they may well come out with a renewed aggression.

Players to watch out for

The promising XI: Jiwanjot Singh, KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Vijay Zol, Suryakumar Yadav, Sanju Samson, Baba Aparajith, Axar Patel, Anureet Singh, Rishi Dhawan, Abhimanyu Mithun, Shreyas Gopal (12th man)

The old-timers' XI: Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Wasim Jaffer, Dinesh Karthik, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, S Badrinath, Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Zaheer Khan, Vinay Kumar, Yusuf Pathan (12th man)

In the news

Jammu and Kashmir's matches in the 2014-15 season will all be away games, following the devastating floods in September that left two cricket grounds in the state in deplorable condition.

Left-arm seamer, Pradeep Sangwan, who served an 18-month doping ban, is back in the Delhi Ranji side.

The BCCI decided that all knock-out games of the 2014-15 Ranji season will be held at neutral venues, just like the previous season.