The quarter-finals of the Ranji Trophy will get underway on December 23, five days after the initially scheduled date after two games were postponed due to bad weather conditions. Indore’s impressive debut as Test venue has earned the city the right to host the the final of the tournament. Seven venues have been chosen to host the knockout games, none of which are from the eight teams who have progressed from the round-robin phase.
The two semi-finals, which will kick off on January 1 will be played in Rajkot and Nagpur respectively. The final will get underway on January 10. Indore last hosted the summit event in the Ranji Trophy 70 years ago. Tamil Nadu Cricket Association chief N Srinivasan had called for the inclusion of India’s mainstays Ravichandran Ashwin and Murali Vijay for the final stages of the tournament despite the opening batsman suffering a nasty shoulder injury in the Chennai Test against England.
The former Board of Control for Cricket in India chief was optimistic about the spin ace’s chances of representing his state, “Ashwin is going to Dubai to attend the inauguration of an academy the day after the Test ends but will be back in time for the Ranji quarter-final,” Srinivasan was quoted as saying by PTI.
Tamil Nadu are not the only side trying to rope in their high-profile Test stars. Haryana are trying to field spinners Amit Mishra and Jayant Yadav while Karnataka Cricket Association also recently expressed a desire for triple-century hero Karun Nair, KL Rahul and Manish Pandey to return to state duties
The fixtures:
- Hyderabad vs Mumbai in Raipur
- Karnataka vs Tamil Nadu in Visakhapatnam
- Gujarat vs Odisha in Jaipur
- Haryana vs Jharkhand in Vadodara
- 1st semi-final: From January 1 at Rajkot
- 2nd semi-final: From January 1 at Nagpur
- Final: From January 10th at Indore
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