The Bengal cricket team is an Indian domestic cricket team representing the state of West Bengal. The team is based in Kolkata. It is administered by the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) and participates in tournaments organized by the Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI). The team competes in the First-class cricket competition known as the Ranji Trophy, the List A cricket Vijay Hazare Trophy, and the T20 competition Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT).

They have been playing first-class cricket since 1935. Bengal have won the Ranji Trophy twice and been runners-up 13 times. They also play in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and the Vijay Hazare Trophy, both of which they have won once.

Several international cricketers have played for the team including Dilip Doshi, Sourav Ganguly, Deep Dasgupta, Mohammed Shami, Pankaj Roy, and Wriddhiman Saha.

History

The Calcutta Cricket Club was founded in 1792 with membership restricted to Europeans. The team's earliest known match was reported 23 February 1792 in the Madras Courier, Calcutta playing a team from Barrackpore and Dumdum.Chronology of Sports Events. West Bengal Department of Youth Services and Sports, 2017. Retrieved 29 November 2023. Eden Gardens was established as the club's home stadium in 1864. It had been a park called Auckland Circus Gardens, named after George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland, who was the Governor-General of India from 1836 to 1842. It was renamed Eden Gardens in 1841, in honour of Auckland's two sisters.

For the first time, a team representing Bengal was formed in December 1889 for a match against an English touring team at Eden Gardens. At that time, no native Bengalis were involved and the team, captained by British Army officer Cleveland Greenway, was composed of European colonials who were mostly British expatriates. Bengal lost the match, played over the New Year period, by an innings and 17 runs.Guha, 2001, pp. 33–37. In January 1923, a Bengal team took part in the Nagpur Provincial Tournament and, having defeated a Central Provinces XI in their semi-final, lost the final against Bombay. The Bengal team in this competition included a couple of native players but, as before, it was principally a colonial enterprise.Nagpur Provincial Tournament itinerary, 1923. CricketArchive. Retrieved 29 November 2023. The Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) was founded in 1928 and has governance of all cricket in West Bengal, including management of the Bengal team.Early History of Bengal Cricket leading to the formation of the Cricket Association of Bengal in 1928. Bengal Cricket Association. Retrieved 29 November 2023.

In 1934, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) organised the Ranji Trophy but Bengal did not take part in 1934–35. Bengal achieved first-class status in December 1935 when they played the Australian tourists. Bengal were captained by Alec Hosie and the team included Shute Banerjee. Although the Australian team on that tour was a mixed bag of veterans and fringe players, they easily defeated Bengal by 9 wickets.Bengal v Australians, December 1935. ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 29 November 2023.Bengal v Australians, December 1935. CricketArchive. Retrieved 29 November 2023.

In January 1936, Bengal joined the Ranji Trophy, playing in the East Zone, and reached the semi-final where they lost to Madras. In 1936–37, Bengal were runners-up to Nawanagar. Two years later, in 1938–39, Bengal won the Ranji for the first time when they defeated Southern Punjab in the final. Throughout this period, Bengal was essentially a West Bengal team. They were based in Calcutta and played all their matches at Eden Gardens. The earliest match of note in Dhaka was in February 1941 when a Bengal Governor's XI played the Bengal Gymkhana at the Bangabandhu National Stadium, then called the Dacca Stadium.Bengal Governor's XI v Bengal Gymkhana, 1941. CricketArchive. Retrieved 29 November 2023. Following Partition of India in 1947, Bengal was split into West (India) and East (then Pakistan, now Bangladesh).

Bengal won their second Ranji Trophy in 1989–90 when they defeated Delhi in the final. To 2023, In addition to their two titles, Bengal have been runners-up 13 times, most recently in 2022–23, and only Bombay/Mumbai have appeared in more finals.Ranji Trophy Winners (from 1934/35). Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. Retrieved 29 November 2023.

Having won the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in 2011, Bengal won the Vijay Hazare Trophy in 2012. Playing under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly, they defeated Mumbai in the final at the Feroz Shah Kotla Ground, Delhi on 12 March 2012.

Author Mihir Bose, writing in 1990, commented that cricket's first secure foothold in India was Calcutta Cricket Club, founded 1792 and only five years younger than Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). Despite continuing enthusiasm for the sport in Bengal, it is overshadowed by Mumbai as "the centre for Indian cricket".Bose, 1990, p. 18. Bose describes Eden Gardens as "one of the great Test match centres of the world", but he laments the relative lack of Bengali Test players saying that only "a handful" has played Test cricket.

To the end of 2023, Bengal have played in a total of 450 first-class matches, 446 of them in the Ranji Trophy. The exceptions are the team's inaugural first-class match against the 1935/36 Australians; Marylebone Cricket Club in December 1951; the Commonwealth XI in December 1953; and the 1990/91 Irani Cup against Rest of India.First-class matches played by Bengal. CricketArchive. Retrieved 29 November 2023.

Home grounds

Eden Gardens, Kolkata – the second largest stadium in India and also the home ground of Kolkata Knight Riders Jadavpur University Campus Ground, Jadavpur – leased out to the Cricket Association of Bengal, it hosts inter-state and intrastate matches Bengal Cricket Academy, Kalyani Deshbandu Park, North Kolkata – hosted matches of Vinoo Mankad Trophy, Cooch Behar Trophy, Vijay Merchant Trophy and Polly Umrigar Trophy

Honours Ranji Trophy Winners (2): 1938–39, 1989–90 Runners-up (13): 1936–37, 1943–44, 1952–53, 1955–56, 1958–59, 1968–69, 1971–72, 1988–89, 1993–94, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2019–20, 2022–23

Wills Trophy Runners-up (2): 1995–96, 1998–99

Vijay Hazare Trophy Winners (1): 2011–12 Runners-up (5): 2003–04, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2016–17

Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Winners (1): 2010–11

Players Current squad Updated as on 18 February 2026.

Players with international caps are listed in bold.

Name Birth date Batting Bowling Notes Batters Sudip Kumar Gharami RHB OB Sudip Kumar Gharami, ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 9 November 2023.Sudip Kumar Gharani, CricketArchive. Retrieved 9 November 2023. Abhimanyu Easwaran RHB LB Captain Non-international, but has been a standby for India Test squads.Abhimanyu Easwaran, ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 9 November 2023.Abhimanyu Easwaran, CricketArchive. Retrieved 9 November 2023. Anustup Majumdar RHB LB Anustup Majumdar, ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 9 November 2023.Anustup Majumdar, CricketArchive. Retrieved 9 November 2023. Sumanta Gupta RHB LB , ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 24 December 2024. Sudip Chatterjee LHB LB , ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 19 October 2024. All-rounders Shahbaz Ahmed LHB SLA Plays for Lucknow Super Giants in Indian Premier League (IPL).Shahbaz Ahmed. ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 18 November 2023.Shahbaz Ahmed. CricketArchive. Retrieved 18 November 2023. Karan Lal RHB OB Under-19 international.Karan Lal, ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 9 November 2023.Karan Lal, CricketArchive. Retrieved 9 November 2023. Rahul Prasad RHB OB , ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 17 November 2025. Vishal Bhati LHB SLA Vishal Bhati. ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 23 October 2025. Wicket-keepers Abishek Porel LHB Vice-Captain Plays for Delhi Capitals in IPL.Abishek Porel, ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 9 November 2023.Abhishek Porel, CricketArchive. Retrieved 9 November 2023. Shakir Habib Gandhi RHB Habib Gandhi, ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 9 November 2023.Habib Gandhi, CricketArchive. Retrieved 9 November 2023. Spin bowlers Writtick Chatterjee RHB OB , ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 19 October 2024. Pradipta Pramanik RHB SLA Pradipta Pramanik. ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 18 November 2023.Pradipta Pramanik. CricketArchive. Retrieved 18 November 2023. Aamir Gani RHB OB Aamir Gani. ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 12 March 2026 Seam bowlers Mohammed Shami RHB RM Plays for Lucknow Super Giants in IPLMohammed Shami. ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 21 November 2024. Akash Deep RHB RFM Plays for Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL.Akash Deep. ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 29 April 2025. Mukesh Kumar RHB RFM Plays for Delhi Capitals in IPL.Mukesh Kumar. ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 18 November 2023.Mukesh Kumar. CricketArchive. Retrieved 18 November 2023. Suraj Jaiswal RHB RM . ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 19 January 2023. Ishan Porel RHB RFM Ishan Porel. ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 18 November 2023.Ishan Porel. CricketArchive. Retrieved 18 November 2023. Rohit Kumar RHB RM Rohit Kumar. ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 12 March 2026 Mohammad Kaif RHB RFM Mohammed Kaif. ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 18 November 2023.Mohammed Kaif. CricketArchive. Retrieved 18 November 2023. Sayan Ghosh RHB RM Sayan Ghosh. ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 29 November 2024. Saksham Choudhary LHB RM . ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 15 December 2024.

Notable former players

The following Bengal cricketers hold team records or have made international appearances in Test, ODI or T20I matches. Pravin Amre Madhav Apte Arun Lal Shute Banerjee Montu Banerjee Subroto Banerjee Prakash Bhandari Gopal Bose Premangsu Chatterjee Utpal Chatterjee Nirode Chowdhury Deep Dasgupta Akash Deep Ashok Dinda Dilip Doshi Devang Gandhi Ashok Gandotra Sourav Ganguly Rohan Gavaskar Subrata Guha Subhash Gupte Baloo Gupte Narendra Hirwani Saba Karim Ramnath Kenny Lester King Mohammed Shami Mukesh Kumar Ashok Malhotra Vijay Manjrekar Vinoo Mankad Saradindu Mukherjee C. S. Nayudu Pragyan Ojha Phiroze Palia Dattu Phadkar Pankaj Roy Ambar Roy Pranab Roy Wriddhiman Saha Probir Sen Shahbaz Ahmed Chetan Sharma Rakesh Shukla Laxmi Shukla Manoj Tiwary Prashant Vaidya Saurasish Lahiri

Statistics

Notes References

Sources

External links Ranji Trophy winners Bengal cricket team; records Saurav Ganguly made 135 runs vs Haryana in Ranji Trophy Bengal Women's Cricket Team