Ranji Trophy 2021-22: BCCI announce five day quarantine, increase squad size for 1st phase

The Ranji Trophy 2021-22 season is all set to begin on February 17 and BCCI has allowed a squad size of 30 which includes a minimum of 20 players and a support staff of 10 members. The tournament was earlier scheduled to begin last month until the surge in Covid-19 cases throughout the country and among the players created a lot of panic which caused the BCCI to suspend the domestic tournament.

However, the situation has bettered in the country and it left with choices to make for BCCI as they had to fit in the Ranji tournament within the start of IPL which was always going to be difficult. It has been two years since the tournament was last conducted and the state associations were desperate to have the season back this time around. As a result, the BCCI will host that tournament across nine different bio bubbles and in two phases, one before the IPL and one, after the IPL. Rajkot, Cuttack, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Delhi, Haryana, Guwahati, and Kolkata are the venues designated.

BCCI released the guidelines to the state associations and it noted that there will be a quarantine of five days for the players. Also, the statement added that 20 players will be eligible for match fees (Playing XI will be eligible for 100 percent while the remaining 9 will be entitled to 50 percent). Two COVID reserves will be allowed per team which gives enough set of players to pick up from the squad even if the players test positive for Covid-19.

Pujara and Rahane added to their state Ranji Trophy squads

Meanwhile, India Test veterans Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane have been added to their respective state sides for the upcoming Ranji season. Pujara was named in the 21 member Saurashtra squad led by Jaydev Unadkat while Rahane will be playing for Mumbai under the leadership of Prithvi Shaw.

Both these sides have been placed in the same group, and they will go against each other in the opening clash of the tournament. All the teams will assemble in their respective venues on February 10 and RT-PCR tests will be conducted on day two and day five, leaving teams’ two days for practice on February 15 and 16. The second phase of the Ranji Trophy, comprising quarterfinals, semifinals, and final, will be held from May 30 as announced earlier.