The state of play in the Ranji Trophy

India’s premier domestic cricket tournament has improved over the years, but more needs to be done to bolster its relevance and health

By the time he was trapped lbw by Jalaj Saxena at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Ground in Rajkot on a warm Saturday morning in March, Yash Dubey had batted for 881 minutes and faced 591 balls. The 23-year-old, who was opening the innings for the first time in his career, had made 289.

It was a monumental innings, without which Madhya Pradesh would not have been able to pile up 585 for nine (declared) against Kerala in that Ranji Trophy league match. With his heroic effort, Dubey had batted Kerala out of not just that league match but the tournament as well.

Some three months later, Dubey would play another significant innings, in the final of the Ranji Trophy against Mumbai at Bengaluru. His 133 laid the foundation for another 500-plus score for Madhya Pradesh, which went on to win the match by six wickets and claim its maiden Ranji Trophy title. (Holkar won the Ranji Trophy four times in the 1940s and early 1950s before it was dissolved and replaced by a Madhya Bharat team, which later became part of the Madhya Pradesh team).

Madhya Pradesh’s triumph and Dubey’s innings at Rajkot tell us a great deal about the Ranji Trophy. Even the career of the bowler who denied him what had looked an almost inevitable triple hundred tells us something about Indian cricket’s premier domestic tournament.

Madhya Pradesh isn’t the only underdog to lift the Ranji Trophy in recent times. In the tournament’s previous edition (2019-20), Saurashtra was the champion. In 2016-17, Gujarat was the winner, and a year later, it was Vidarbha’s turn. Gujarat and Vidarbha, too, were kissing the Ranji Trophy for the first time. 

In the 88-year history of the tournament, Mumbai has been the champion 41 times, 15 of which were part of a stunning streak of successive titles from 1958-59 to 1972-73. It has contested the final on six other occasions. Two other powerhouses of Indian cricket, Karnataka and Delhi, have been champions eight and seven times respectively. 

So when teams with less strong traditions in cricket such as Gujarat or Uttar Pradesh (the champion in 2005-2006) go on to win the Ranji Trophy, that shows the game is growing across the country. That fact is reflected in the composition of the Indian team, especially beginning with the M.S. Dhoni era.