PANAJI
Goa will have a new captain and coach as the team gears up for a new Ranji season which begins on October 15.
Goa had a good season last year wherein the Goan side had won the Plate division (meant for lower-ranked teams) and qualified for Elite Group.
Goa had won all their six matches to put up an impressive show. In the finals, they thrashed Nagaland by 362 runs to win the Plate division. This meant that Goa qualified for Ranji Elite Group for 2025-26 season.
In fact, Goa had won all their five league games last year, thereby topping the points table with 33 points. In the league stage, they defeated Manipur, Sikkim, Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh without much effort.
Even though the wins may have come against lower-ranked sides, it was a good all-round solid performance by Goa with both their batters and bowlers contributing to the victories.
However, things won’t be easy this time around. Goa has been placed in Ranji Elite B Group along with former champions - Saurashtra, Karnataka, Punjab, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Kerala and Chandigarh are the other teams in their group.
Only top-two sides from each of the four groups will advance to the quarter-final.
The Ranji Trophy will held in two phases. It will begin on October 15 and continue till November 19 in the first phase, while the second phase will begin on January 22.
One of Goa’s prolific run-getter in domestic cricket, Snehal Kauthankar who had top-scored for Goa during last Ranji season with 949 runs has been appointed as the new captain. He takes over from Darshan Misal who was Goa’s skipper for last three seasons.
“I am looking forward to this opportunity to lead the team. We had a very good training camp and the team is performing very good. So, I am really excited to work with this team for the season,” Kauthankar told The Goan.
In fact, Snehal had captained Goa in Ranji Trophy earlier for three matches during 2021-22 season.
However, Kauthankar will miss the first match against Chandigarh starting from 15 October at Porvorim due to personal reason. In his absence, Deepraj Gaonkar will lead the side for the first match.
Lalit Yadav, Vikas Singh and Arjun Tendulkar will be the three outstation players. For Arjun Tendulkar, this will be his fourth season playing for Goa.
With former India international Dinesh Mongia, who was Goa’s coach during last season making himself ‘unavailable’, former Afghanistan cricket batting coach Milap Mewada has been appointed as Goa’s new head coach. Former India international Dodda Ganesh will be the assistant coach.
Goa's squad for first match:
Deepraj Gaonkar (captain), Lalit Yadav (vice-captain), Suyash Prabhudessai, Manthan Khutkar, Darshan Misal, Mohit Redkar, Samar Dubhashi, Heramb Parab, Vikas Singh, Vijesh Prabhudessai, Ishaan Gadekar, Kashyap Bakhale, Rajshekhar Harikant, Arjun Tendulkar, Abhinav Tejrana
Schedule:
Goa vs Chandigarh, October 15-18, Porvorim
Goa vs Karnataka, October 25-28, Shimoga
Goa vs Punjab, November 1–4, New Chandigarh
Goa vs Madhya Pradesh, November 8–11, Porvorim
Goa vs Saurashtra, November 16-19, Rajkot
Goa vs Maharashtra, January 22–25, 2026, Pune
Goa vs Kerala, January 29–1 February, 2026, Porvorim
