Ranji Trophy Winners List (1934–2025): Year-Wise Champions, Most Titles & Records

Vidarbha won the Ranji Trophy for the third time in 2024-25, beating Kerala in the final at Nagpur. The match ended in a draw, but Vidarbha took the title on the basis of their first-innings lead. Captain Akshay Wadkar lifted the trophy after his team posted a strong performance across the season.

The Ranji Trophy started in 1934 and remains India’s premier domestic first-class cricket tournament. Over 90 seasons, the competition has seen 38 teams fight for the title. Mumbai leads with 42 championships, a record no other team comes close to matching. The tournament continues producing players who go on to represent India at the international level.

Ranji Trophy 2024-25 Champion

Vidarbha’s third title came after a hard-fought final against Kerala at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground in Nagpur. The match started on March 6, 2025, and lasted the full five days. Neither team managed an outright win, but Vidarbha’s 447 in the first innings gave them a crucial 104-run lead over Kerala’s 343.

Akshay Wadkar captained the side through the season. His leadership helped Vidarbha maintain consistency across both batting and bowling. The team’s pace attack, backed by spinners, kept taking wickets at regular intervals throughout the knockout stage.

Harsh Dubey broke records during the 2024-25 season. The left-arm spinner took 69 wickets across all matches, setting a new benchmark for most wickets in a single Ranji Trophy season. His performance in the quarterfinal and semifinal stages sealed Vidarbha’s path to the final.

Ranji Trophy Winners List (1934-2025)

The tournament has completed 89 seasons since 1934. The 2020-21 edition got cancelled because of COVID-19. Here’s the complete year-wise list of champions and runners-up.

The table lists every Ranji Trophy winner from the first season in 1934-35 through the latest edition in 2024-25. Bombay dominated the early years before becoming Mumbai in 1996-97. Several teams, such as Holkar, Nawanagar, and Western India, no longer exist after the state boundaries changed. The 2020-21 season got scrapped completely when COVID-19 hit India.

Finals were shifted between different cities based on which team qualified. Mumbai hosted the most finals at their home ground. Karnataka, Delhi, and Baroda also staged multiple championship matches over the decades. Recent seasons have seen more neutral venues chosen for the title clash.

Most Successful Teams

Mumbai sits far ahead of every other team in Ranji Trophy history. Their 42 titles came from 48 final appearances, giving them an 87.5 percent win rate in title matches. The team won 15 consecutive championships between 1958-59 and 1972-73, a streak no other domestic cricket team anywhere has matched.

The name changed from Bombay to Mumbai in 1996-97, but the success continued. Mumbai’s most recent title came in 2023-24 when they beat Vidarbha at Wankhede Stadium. Before that, they had gone eight years without winning, their longest drought since the 1970s.

Karnataka stands second with 8 titles. The team won their first championship in 1973-74, ending Mumbai’s 15-year winning run. Their last title came in 2014-15. Delhi has 7 titles, with their peak period coming in the late 1970s and 1980s, when they won 5 championships in 10 years.

Baroda won 5 titles, all before 1960. Holkar, which later became Madhya Pradesh, also has 5 titles. In 2021-22, Madhya Pradesh won another championship, bringing their total to 6. The highest run scorer in the Ranji Trophy shows how great batsmen from these powerful teams changed the course of the tournament’s history.

Vidarbha won 3 titles in just 7 years, from 2017-18 to 2024-25. Their 75 percent win rate in finals shows the team’s ability to perform under pressure. Captain Faiz Fazal led the first two wins, while Akshay Wadkar captained the 2024-25 triumph.

Ranji Trophy Records

Team and individual records in the Ranji Trophy show the tournament’s long history of high-quality cricket. Hyderabad holds both the highest and lowest team totals, separated by 17 years.

Team Records

Hyderabad scored 935 for 5 declared against Andhra in 1993-94. The innings lasted two full days at Secunderabad. V. Pratap and M. V. Sridhar both scored double centuries in that match. The same Hyderabad team got bowled out for 21 against Rajasthan in 2010, the lowest total in tournament history.

Individual Match Records

B. B. Nimbalkar scored 443 not out for Maharashtra against Kathiawar in 1948-49 at Poona. He remained unbeaten when Maharashtra declared. That innings still stands as the highest individual score in the Ranji Trophy and the second-highest in all first-class cricket worldwide.

Premangsu Chatterjee took 10 wickets for 20 runs bowling for Bengal against Assam in 1956-57. His figures remain the best bowling performance in a Ranji Trophy innings. Anil Kumble’s 16 for 99 against Kerala in 1994-95 stands as the best match bowling figures. The tournament has seen several explosive batting displays over the years, including performances by players who hit 6 sixes in an over during their domestic careers.

Season Records

VVS Laxman scored 1,415 runs for Hyderabad in the 1999-2000 season. Wasim Jaffer hit 7 centuries for Mumbai that same season. Harsh Dubey’s 69 wickets in 2024-25 broke the previous record of 65 wickets, setting a new benchmark for bowlers.

Career Records

Wasim Jaffer played 155 Ranji Trophy matches between 1996 and 2020. He scored 12,038 runs with 40 centuries, both career records. His batting average of 50.15 across 260 innings shows remarkable consistency. Some of these performances rank among the top triple centuries in first-class cricket globally.

Vijay Merchant averaged 98.35 in his Ranji Trophy career from 1934 to 1951. He scored 3,631 runs in just 47 innings before his retirement. Rajinder Goel took 640 wickets in the tournament between 1958 and 1985, the most by any bowler. He never played for India despite being the leading wicket-taker in domestic cricket for decades.

Tournament History and Format

The BCCI decided to start a national cricket championship in July 1934. They named it after Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji, a former Indian prince who played Test cricket for England. Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala donated the trophy.

The first match happened on November 4, 1934, at Chepauk in Madras. Madras played Mysore and won by an innings and 23 runs. Bombay won the inaugural 1934-35 season, beating Northern India in the final. That marked the start of their decades-long dominance of Indian domestic cricket.

The tournament format changed several times over the course of 90 years. Early editions used a knockout system with zonal qualification. The 1970s brought league stages before knockout rounds. In 2002, BCCI introduced an Elite and Plate division system to accommodate more teams.

The current format has 38 teams divided into Elite Groups A, B, C, and a Plate Group. Teams play round-robin matches in their groups. The top teams from Elite groups advance to the knockout quarterfinals, then the semifinals, and finally the championship match. The Plate Group winner gets promoted to Elite for the next season.

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Current Tournament Structure

States, union territories, and institutional teams compete in the Ranji Trophy. All 28 Indian states have teams. Union territories like Delhi, Chandigarh, Puducherry, and Jammu and Kashmir also participate. Railways and Services represent institutional teams that draw players from across India.

Some states have multiple teams because of their size. Maharashtra fields both Mumbai and Vidarbha. Gujarat has Saurashtra and Baroda competing separately. These teams represent different regions within larger states and maintain separate cricket associations.

Sports18 broadcasts matches on television. JioCinema handles digital streaming. The broadcasting deal changed hands from Star Sports and Disney+ Hotstar after the 2022 season. Most matches are played on state association grounds, with finals usually held at neutral venues or at the higher-ranked team’s home ground.

Player Salaries and Match Fees

BCCI pays cricketers based on their experience in the Ranji Trophy. Senior players who have played 40 or more matches earn ₹2.4 lakh per four-day game. Mid-senior players with 20 to 39 matches get ₹2 lakh. Junior players with fewer than 20 matches receive ₹1.6 lakh per match.

These payments increased substantially after BCCI’s revenue from IPL and international cricket grew. The board uses domestic cricket to identify talent and prepare players for international duty. State associations also provide contracts to regular performers, adding to their match fee income.

Teams That Never Won

Kerala reached the final for the first time in 2024–25, but lost to Vidarbha. The team has never won the Ranji Trophy, even though it has produced many international cricketers over the years. Bihar, Services, and Chandigarh still don’t have any titles.

Goa, Jharkhand, and Odisha have competed for decades without reaching a final. In the past few years, a few northeastern states have entered the competition, but they haven’t gone very far in the knockout rounds. To compete with established Elite teams, the Plate Group teams work to improve their players and the infrastructure.

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