Domestic season to kick off on August 28; Duleep Trophy back to zonal format
The 2025-26 domestic cricket season will kick off with the Duleep Trophy, starting August 28, and end with the Senior Women's Inter-Zonal Multi-Day Trophy on April 3. The schedule for the upcoming season was announced via a press release after the BCCI's 28th Apex Council meeting on Saturday.
The Ranji Trophy is slated to be held from October 15 to February 28. Like last season, the league stage of India's premier First Class competition will be held in two phases. The first phase will be held from October 15 to November 19 while the second phase will involve two rounds from January 22 to February 1. The knockouts will begin on February 6. The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and the Vijay Hazare Trophy - the T20 and 50-over competitions respectively - will be played during the Ranji break.
Among the key decisions taken at the meeting was a return to the zonal format for the Duleep Trophy. In the 2024-25 season, the tournament was played between four teams, named India A, India B, India C and India D, picked by the national selectors. This year, it will again be contested among the six zones – North, South, West, East, Central and North East.
The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy will now include a Super League stage instead of the knockouts. The Super League stage will feature two groups of four teams each based on standings at the end of the league phase. The group toppers will directly contest the final.
Meanwhile, the itinerary for New Zealand's white-ball tour of India in January 2026 was also confirmed. The Black Caps will play three ODIs and five T20Is from January 11 to 31.
Following the stampede in Bengaluru after Royal Challengers Bengaluru's IPL victory that led to 11 deaths, the BCCI has also decided to 'constitute a committee to formulate comprehensive guidelines aimed at preventing such occurrences in the future'. BCCI office-bearers Devajit Saikia, Prabhtej Singh Bhatia and Rajeev Shukla are part of the committee expected to prepare the guidelines within 15 days.
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