Duleep Trophy goes back to zonal format, India's schedule announced for white-ball series against NZ

As per changes announced by the Apex Council, the Duleep Trophy and Senior Women’s Challenger tournaments will now be contested between six zonal teams selected by zonal selectors. The format is a departure from the last time when the national selection committee picked the squads, and for the upcoming season, teams will be picked by the Zonal Selection Committee as per the previous tradition.

The Apex Council also said the Plate Group restructuring has been introduced across age categories. As per this, the bottom 6 teams (based on the previous season’s rankings) will be placed in the plate group for limited-overs tournaments, adding that only one team will be promoted/relegated between Elite and Plate groups going forward.

In the 2025/26 domestic schedule, the prestigious Ranji Trophy will continue to be held in two phases. The first phase of the tournament will begin on October 15 and run till November 19, while the second phase begins on January 22.

Regarding the tournament updates, the Apex Council said the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and Senior Women’s T20 Trophy will now include a Super League stage instead of a traditional knockout. In this, each team will play three games in the league, following which the top team from Groups A and B will feature in the final.

As far as new tournament grouping formats are concerned, major tournaments such as the Vijay Hazare Trophy, Senior Women’s One Day Trophy, and Men’s U23 State A Trophy will follow a four Elite Groups + one Plate Group model. On the other hand, most junior and women’s tournaments (U16, U19, U23) have been moved to a five Elite + one Plate group structure.

Meanwhile, the BCCI Apex Council has also approved the venues for India’s upcoming white-ball home series against New Zealand, scheduled to be held in early 2026. Vadodara, Rajkot, and Indore will host ODIs on January 11, 14 and 18, respectively.

Nagpur, Raipur, Guwahati, Visakhapatnam, and Thiruvananthapuram are the hosts for the five T20Is to be held from January 21 to 31. The five T20I matches will serve as vital preparation games for India and New Zealand ahead of the 2026 Men’s T20 World Cup, to be played in India and Sri Lanka.

Ranji Trophy Groups for 2025-26 season

Elite A: Tamil Nadu, Baroda, Jharkhand, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra, Nagaland

Elite B: Saurashtra, Chandigarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Goa

Elite C: Gujarat, Haryana, Services, Bengal, Railways, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Assam

Elite D: Mumbai, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Hyderabad, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Puducherry

Plate: Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim, Manipur, Arunachal

India vs New Zealand men’s white-ball series schedule:

ODIs: - Vadodara (January 11), Rajkot (January 14) and Indore (January 18)

T20Is: - Nagpur (January 21), Raipur (January 23), Guwahati (January 25), Visakhapatnam (January 28) and Thiruvananthapuram (January 31)