It took 84 long years for Test cricket to come to the land of Ranjitsinhji.
Manoj Tiwary and Robin Uthappa have been named India 'A' captains of the four-day and one-day squads respectively, which will leave for a month-long tour of Australia.
In the other matches, Manipur trounced Nagaland by 10 wickets in the battle of newcomers while Jammu and Kashmir defeated Andhra Pradesh by five wickets.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni hit couple of towering sixes in his 43 but once again failed as a finisher with Karnataka pipping Jharkhand by five runs in a group D league encounter of the Vijay Hazare Trophy.
Dwayne Smith cracked a blistering 79 as a dominant Chennai Super Kings steamrolled Delhi Daredevils by eight wickets for their sixth straight win in the Indian Premier League.
West Zone produced a clinical all-round performance to score a comprehensive 133-run victory over North Zone in the final and win their third successive Deodhar Trophy in Visakhapatnam on Thursday. Riding on Kedar Devdhar's 94 and skipper Cheteshwar Pujara's patient half-century, West Zone posted a challenging 281 for 3 in 50 overs. Spinners Arpit Vasavada (3-20) and Akshar Patel (2-23) then emerged the pick of the bowlers as North Zone were bundled out for 148 in 37.1 overs at the Y S Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium.
Former captain Vinay Kumar hit an unbeaten 83 and shared a crucial 97-run stand for the last wicket Ronit More (10) to help Karnataka take a 39-run first innings lead against Rajasthan in the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal, in Bengaluru, on Wednesday.
India beat Zimbabwe by seven wickets to take an assailable 3-0 lead in the five match ODI series at Harare Sports Club ground on Sunday.
A rejuvenated India will start as the favourites when they lock horns with Zimbabwe, who have been left bruised and battered after a 10-wicket thrashing, in the series-deciding third and final Twenty20 International in Harare, on Wednesday.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, rated as one of the best finishers in limited overs cricket, hailed Zimbabwe pacer Neville Madziva, who bowled a superb final over to give the hosts a thrilling two-run victory in the first T20 International in Harare, on Saturday.
Variation in any bowling attack makes it lethal and that's precisely the reason why bowling coach Bharath Arun is in search of a potent left-arm speedster, who enables Indian team to have all bases covered.
"The ball was too far outside, to be honest, but I don't really know whether it was wide or not," Harbhajan told reporters at the post match conference.
The Indian selectors finally lost patience with the under-performing pace duo Ishant Sharma and R Vinay Kumar and ignored them for the upcoming three-match One Day International series against the West Indies.
A round-up of Ranji Trophy matches played on Tuesday.
Inclement weather poses a threat to the India-Australia T20 international in Rajkot on Thursday, with the Met department forecasting rainfall over the next 48 hours.
Kolkata Knight Riders will be looking to earn two valuable points and move up to second spot in the points-table when they take on struggling Royal Challengers Bangalore.
After putting a stop to their prolonged losing streak, Delhi Daredevils will look to carry forward the momentum when they take on Sunrisers Hyderabad in their Indian Premier League encounter in Visakhapatnam on Saturday.
Cheteshwar Pujara surpassed Vijay Merchant's record for the most double hundreds by an Indian in first-class cricket -- a record that stood for almost 70 years. A roundup of Day 2 of the Ranji Trophy matches on Thursday.
Sunrisers Hyderabad surprised quite a few by opting to release the fast bowling duo of Ishant Sharma and Dale Steyn, while they also let go of England discard Kevin Pietersen.
IPL Season 11 begins on April 7. Rajneesh Gupta has all the numbers.
A round-up of Ranji matches played on Friday
After Week 4 in the IPL-11, which players offer the best value for money?
A round-up of all the Ranji Trophy matches played on Monday
Mahendra Singh Dhoni roared back to form with a smashing half-century to power RIsing Pune Supergiant to a six-wicket victory against Sunrisers Hyderabad in Pune, on Saturday.
A round-up of all the Ranji Trophy matches played on Monday.
However, if anyone has unfinished business over a decade of IPL, it is India captain Virat Kohli. He made his intent amply clear earlier this week.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be eager to break the sequence of reverses and get Rising Pune Supergiants' campaign back on track when they lock horns with in-form Kolkata Knight Riders.
Young pacer Tushar Deshpande recorded his career-best figures of six for 70 to help Mumbai earn a sizeable first innings lead against Railways on the third day of their Ranji Trophy Group A encounter in New Delhi on Saturday.
Rajneesh Gupta brings you all the numbers from the 52 games in IPL-12.
'He is like a pillar and the whole team bats around him.' 'In today's world, everyone likes to play their strokes while Pujara is someone who will tire out the bowlers.' 'If you have one batsman who can play out the new ball or play out a spell from a good bowler, then it helps the whole team, it helps the other batsmen.'
Kolkata Knight Riders will have to break the agonising sequence of debacles when they clash with defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL eliminator, in Bengaluru, on Wednesday.
Karthik's gem of a cameo got him 29 off 8 balls with two boundaries and three sixes -- the last of them which will be forever be etched in the memory.
While KKR suffered their heaviest defeat of the season against Sunrisers Hyderabad in their last game, Pune looked to have found their mojo in the business end of the tournament having registered consecutive wins in their last two matches.
India Test regulars like Cheteswar Pujara and Ishant Sharma have also thrown their hat into the ring with base prices of Rs 50 and Rs 75 lakh respectively.
While the auction ahead of the ninth edition, starting in April, was great for Indian players in general, there were a few surprises in store. Rediff.com takes a look at the Indian players who secured themselves the best deals.
Following the debacle in the New Zealand ODI series, the selectors finally lost patience with the under-performing Suresh Raina and Ishant Sharma and axed them from India's squad for the Asia Cup later this month. Cheteshwar Pujara, who played two ODIs in Zimbabwe in August, made a comeback to the ODI squad.
Facing early elimination, two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders need to record a win to stay afloat when they take on table-toppers Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Suresh Raina's return could not have been better-timed as Gujarat Lions, jolted by the tournament's biggest ever defeat, seek to revive their campaign when they face off with Kolkata Knight Riders.
An inconsistent Delhi Daredevils will look to break the home jinx when they take on Mumbai Indians in their sixth match of the IPL cricket tournament at Feroz Shah Kotla in New Delhi on Thursday.
ujarat Lions face the challenging task of gathering themselves and bounce back when they square off against the consistent Kolkata Knight Riders.