Ranji Trophy from February 10 to June 26 at 9 venues

Ranji Trophy, which will be held in two phases, will kick off from February 10 and conclude on June 26, BCCI secretary Jay Shah communicated to all the state associations in an e-mail (TOI has a copy) which detailed the format of the tournament, on Thursday. Listing out the highlights of the 2020-21 edition of the Ranji Trophy, Shah informed that a total of 38 teams will feature in the tournament at nine venues. The league stage will be held before the IPL from February 10 to March 15, and will have 57 matches.

The knockout stage will be held post the IPL, and will have seven matches from May 30 to June 26. The teams have been divided into nine groups (eight Elite and One Plate). Each Elite Group will have four teams, while the Plate Group will have six teams.

In the league stage, each team will play three matches. The Elite teams will play against each other, while the Plate teams will play against three teams from their group. One team from each Elite Group will qualify for the quarterfinal (barring one).

The lowest-ranked qualified team from the eight Elite Groups will play the top-ranked team from Plate Group in the pre-quarterfinal. Overall, the tournament will have 64 matches played in 62 days. The venues for the Elite Group matches are Chennai, Trivandrum, Cuttack, Delhi, Haryana, Ahmedabad, Guwahati and Rajkot, while the venue for the Plate Group matches is Kolkata.

Mumbai have been placed with defending champions Saurashtra, Odisha and Goa in Group Elite D- whose matches will be played in Ahmedabad. The day-wise fixtures, match playing conditions, health and safety guidelines and staging association guidelines of the 2021-22 edition of the Ranji Trophy will be shared shortly, Shah wrote. In the email, Shah