The 38 teams have been divided into five groups – four Elite, of eight teams each, and Plate, featuring six teams. The top two teams from each Elite group will qualify for the quarter-finals, while the bottom two teams out of the 32 will be relegated to the Plate League. They will be replaced by the top two teams from the Plate Group. Unlike the Covid-19 era, the teams will play in home-and-away format.

Named after KS Ranjitsinhji, the first Indian to play Test cricket (but for England), the tournament began in 1934/35. Of the 87 editions, Mumbai have won 41. Karnataka (eight times), Delhi (seven), Baroda (five), and defending champions Madhya Pradesh (five) are the only other teams to have won the Ranji Trophy more than twice.

The tournament will feature several star cricketers, who have not made it to the Test squad for the Bangladesh tour, and will look to impress ahead of India’s Test series against Australia at home later this season. Hanuma Vihari (Andhra captain), Yash Dhull (Delhi captain), Ishant Sharma (Delhi), Priyank Panchal (Gujarat captain), Shahbaz Nadeem (Jharkhand), Mayank Agarwal (Karnataka captain), Kuldeep Sen (Madhya Pradesh), Ajinkya Rahane (Mumbai captain), Sarfaraz Khan (Mumbai), Prithvi Shaw (Mumbai), Baba Indrajith (Tamil Nadu), Rinku Singh (Uttar Pradesh) will be among the ones under the radar, as will be the Test cricketers once they return from Bangladesh.

Ranji Trophy 2022/23, where to watch live: TV channels, match timings and live streaming:

The Ranji Trophy 2022/23 matches will be telecast on various channels of the Star TV network. Live streaming will be available on the Hotstar app.

On December 13, Hyderabad v Tamil Nadu will be shown live on Star Sports 2 and Star Sports 2 HD.

All matches for the league stage will begin at 9:30 AM.