Bihar’s return to the Ranji Trophy Elite Group after two seasons comes with a difficult question: can they now bridge the gap with the country’s stronger domestic sides despite entering the season with barely any meaningful preparation?After winning the Plate final last season to secure promotion, Bihar will now face a considerably tougher pool that includes current champions Jammu & Kashmir, Baroda, Vidarbha, and Madhya Pradesh among others. In the season opener they host a strong Uttar Pradesh side in the newly constructed Rajgir stadium from Sunday.Bihar’s challenge is compounded by the absence of teenage batting sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi for a large part of the season, with the youngster currently with India T20I squad for the West Indies series and the upcoming New Zealand tour.Captain Sakibul Gani will once again lead the side and remains a key figure with his all-round abilities. He scored 329 runs in seven Ranji innings last season, including a century, at an average of 54.83. His leadership, batting at different positions to suit the team’s need and medium pace will assume greater importance in Sooryavanshi’s absence.Opener Mangal Mahrour, Piyush Singh, Akash Raj, wicketkeeper-batters Bipin Saurabh and Sarman Nigrodh, and vice-captain Himanshu Singh all played some big knocks last season but they all will have to take on greater responsibility in batting, while Ayush Loharuka — a standby for the Duleep Trophy side — provides another option at the top. Sooryavanshi himself was part of the Duleep Trophy-winning East Zone squad, underlining the talent Bihar will temporarily lose.The pace attack, meanwhile, has a promising IPL flavour. Shakib Hussain enjoyed a breakthrough 2026 season with Sunrisers Hyderabad, taking 15 wickets in 11 matches, including a best of 4/24. Alongside him, Md Izhar, who has been with Mumbai Indians, will be expected to shoulder a substantial share of the bowling workload.The man tasked with putting the pieces together is Ashutosh Aman, the former Bihar first-class cricketer who last played first-class cricket in 2023-24. His familiarity with the group could be one of Bihar’s advantages, with Aman having shared domestic cricketing space with many of the players he will be coaching now. He was Bihar’s captain during that 2022-23 campaign, when the team last earned promotion to the Elite.But Aman has had little time to translate that familiarity into preparation. The squad was finalised along with the coach only last Wednesday by BCCI-appointed selectors, leaving Aman and players with a messy build-up to the opening fixture.Bihar squad: Sakibul Gani (captain), Ayush Loharuka, Mangal Mahrour, Naman Gaurav, Piyush Singh, Bipin Kumar Saurabh (wk), Sarman Nigrodh (wk), Akash Raj, Prithvi Raj, Himanshu Singh (vice-captain), Khalid Alam, Suraj Kumar Kashyap, Shakib Husain, Md Izhar, Shabbir Khan, Raghavendra Singh and Amod Yadav.Standby: Nawaz Khan, Malay Raj, Danish Alam, Tarun Kumar Singh, Sachin Kumar Singh and Prashant Kumar Singh.Bihar’s fixtures (Group A): Oct 11-14: vs UP, Rajgir; Oct 18-21: vs Baroda, Vadodara; Oct 26-29: vs Madhya Pradesh, Indore; Nov 2-5: vs Goa, Panaji; Jan 17-20: vs Jammu & Kashmir, Rajgir; Jan 24-27: vs Vidarbha, Rajgir; Feb 1-4: vs Puducherry, Puducherry.Best finish: Runners-up in 1975–76 (erstwhile Bihar)Recent best finishes: Plate Group champions in 2022–23 & 2025–26, earned promotions to Elite Group next season
