The 2018–19 Ranji Trophy was the 85th season of the Ranji Trophy, the premier first-class cricket tournament that took place in India between November 2018 and February 2019. Vidarbha were the defending champions. The final took place between Vidarbha and Saurashtra, starting on 3 February 2019. Vidarbha defeated Saurashtra by 78 runs in the final, to become the sixth team in the tournament's history to retain their title. Background In April 2018, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) reinstated Bihar for the competition, bringing the total teams to 29. In July 2018, the BCCI increased the total number of teams to 37, with the addition of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Pondicherry, Sikkim and Uttarakhand. Format The tournament had four groups, with nine teams each in Groups A and B, and ten teams in Group C. All the new teams were placed in the Plate Group. The teams in the Plate Group were allowed to have up to three professional players in their squads. The top two teams from Group C and the top team in the Plate Group progressed to the quarter-finals of the tournament, along with five teams from Groups A and B. Summary League phase The opening round of fixtures saw a total of 94 players making their first-class cricket debut. In the third round match between Vidarbha and Baroda, Vidarbha's Wasim Jaffer became the first batsman to score 11,000 runs in the Ranji Trophy. In the fourth round match between Pondicherry and Mizoram, Pondicherry's Pankaj Singh set a new record for the most five-wicket hauls against different teams in the Ranji Trophy with 17. The fourth round of fixtures also saw the first occasion that seven captains scored centuries. In round five, Paras Dogra batting for Pondicherry scored 253 runs against Sikkim. It was his eighth double century, going past Ajay Sharma's record of seven double centuries in the Ranji Trophy. Also in round five, Ajay Rohera set a new record for the highest score on debut in a first-class match. Batting for Madhya Pradesh against Hyderabad, he scored 267 not out, breaking the record of 260 runs set by Amol Mazumdar in 1994. Naman Ojha became the most successful wicket-keeper in Ranji Trophy history, breaking Vinayak Samant's record of 355 dismissals as wicket-keeper. In the sixth round of fixtures, Milind Kumar of Sikkim became the first batsman to score 1,000 runs