Ranji Trophy final to be played in Hubli

The Ranji Trophy final for 2025-26 season will be played in Karnataka’s Hubli. A formal announcement regarding the venue came from Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on February 19.

The line-up for the final was confirmed after Karnataka drew with Uttarakhand but advanced based on the first-innings lead, with key contributions from KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal and twin centurion R Smaran.

Jammu & Kashmir, on the other hand, reached their first-ever final after their come-from-behind six-wicket win over Bengal in Kalyani. After conceding a 26-run lead, Auqib Nabi led J&K’s fightback as Bengal were wrapped up for a paltry 99, before Vanshaj Sharma guided them home with an unbeaten 43.

Karnataka have won all their four head-to-head clashes against J&K, with their most recent meeting coming in Chennai in 2022.

Meanwhile, this will be Karnataka’s 15th appearance in the final of India’s marquee domestic tournament. Their last appearance in a Ranji summit clash dates back to 2014-15 season, when they beat Tamil Nadu by an innings and 217 runs at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium to clinch their eighth title.

Karnataka will host the Ranji Trophy 2025-26 final by virtue of finishing with more points in the league phase of the tournament. Meanwhile, the KSCA Hubli Cricket Ground hosted Karnataka's league fixture against Chandigarh earlier in the season, which Karnataka won by 185 runs.

The Ranji Trophy 2025-26 final will be played from February 24 to 28.

Karnataka squad

Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, Smaran Ravichandran, Nikin Jose, Abhinav Manohar, Aneesh KV, Mohsin Khan, Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Prabhakar, Muralidhara Venkatesh, Yashovardhan Parantap, Krishnan Shrijith, Kruthik Krishna, KL Rahul, Shreyas Gopal, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Vidhwath Kaverappa, Abhilash Shetty, Shikhar Shetty, Vidyadhar Patil, Prasidh Krishna.

Jammu & Kashmir squad

Paras Dogra, Shubham Khajuria, Qamran Iqbal, Musaif Ajaz, Sahil Lotra, Yawer Hassan, Shubham Pundir, Abdul Samad, Vivrant Sharma, Lone Nasir Muzaffar, Abid Mushtaq, Auqib Nabi Dar, Kanhaiya Wadhawan, Umran Malik, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Sunil Kumar, Mujtaba Yousuf, Umar Nazir Mir, Vanshaj Sharma, Rohit K Sharma, Dikshant Kundal