The opening round of Ranji Trophy matches commences from February 17 following a five-day quarantine and the guidelines issued by the BCCI board on February 8. The squad size, including support staff, has been limited to 30.
The nine host associations issued the “Staging Guidelines” state that each squad can have 30 members to the max, including 20 players and ten support staff.
Ranji Trophy 2022 is to be played in two phases:
BCCI had earlier announced that Ranji Trophy would be played in two phases, before and after the IPL. The venues announced are Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Rajkot, Cuttack, Chennai, Delhi, Haryana, Guwahati, and Thiruvananthapuram.
The opening match between defending champions Saurashtra and Mumbai in Ahmedabad will be much-awaited.
Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane were named in the Saurashtra squad and Mumbai squad, respectively. Both of them are in dire need of a Ranji Trophy century as it can help them take their test careers to great heights.
Thirty-two teams have been categorized into eight elite groups of four, while six from the plate division.
The pre-quarterfinal match will be played between the lowest-ranked qualified team from eight Elite Groups and the winning team of the Plate group. Of the sixty matches, fifty-seven games will be played in the first phase and the rest in the second.
The pre-quarterfinal match to be played in the first phase will engage five days from March 11.
The second phase comprising quarterfinals, semifinals, final matches will be conducted from May 30, as announced previously.
Preparations for Ranji Trophy 2022 amid Covid-19:
The Ranji 2022 will be held in two phases after two years of the pandemic. From February 10, all the teams will reach their respective venues and go for a mandatory five-day quarantine. They will be provided two days for practice on February 15 and 16, RT-PCR tests will be conducted on days two and five.
The teams taking part in the sole round-of-16 clash will have to be quarantined for four days.
Also, the guidelines say that each team can have a physician to deal with covid related issues.
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