The Kerala cricket team is a domestic cricket team based in the Indian state of Kerala. It is in the Elite Group of the Ranji Trophy, the premier first class cricket tournament in India. It was known as Travancore-Cochin cricket team until 1957/58.
Kerala has produced two Indian Test cricketers, Tinu Yohannan and S. Sreesanth. Sanju Samson has represented India in T20Is and ODIs, Sandeep Warrier has represented India in one T20I, while Basil Thampi has a national call-up to his name. The team also lined up ex-Indian International players Sadagoppan Ramesh for two years from 2005 to 2007 and Robin Uthappa, from 2019 to 2022. Kerala has also produced Krishna Chandran, who played at International level for United Arab Emirates.
Playing history
Kerala began competing in the 1957–58 Ranji Trophy, succeeding the Travancore-Cochin cricket team after the states were reorganized. It competed in the South Zone, against Madras/Tamil Nadu, Mysore/Karnataka, Andhra and Hyderabad. In 1957–58 Kerala lost all four matches, three of them by an innings.Wisden 1959, pp. 856–57.
In the 1959–60 season, Kerala's Balan Pandit (262*) and George Abraham (198) put up a 410 runs partnership in the fourth wicket, which is the highest in Indian first-class cricket. Pandit's score remained the highest for Kerala in FC format until the 2007–08 season.
Kerala's best season in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy was in 2012–13 season where they finished 3rd, missing out from finals after losing the last league stage match to eventual champions Gujarat.
By the end of the 2016–17 season, Kerala had played 302 first-class matches, and won 46, lost 140 and drawn 116. In List A cricket Kerala had played 120 matches, with 47 wins, 71 losses and two ties.
Kerala reached the pre-quarterfinal of Ranji Trophy in the 1994–95 season when they progressed as South zone winners under the captaincy of KN Ananthapadmanabhan. They were qualified for the Super League after emerging as the south zone winners in 1996–97 under leadership of Feroze V Rasheed. Kerala reached plate final in 2002–03 and semifinal in 2007–08.
In November 2017, they progressed to the quarter-finals of the Ranji Trophy for the first time, when they finished second in Group B of the 2017–18 tournament. The following season, they progressed to the semifinals for the first time after beating former champions Gujarat in the last eight.
Kerala reached its first Ranji Trophy final in the 2024–25 season, doing so in dramatic fashion after first innings victories in the quarterfinal and semifinal by one run and two runs respectively.
Honours YearFinal ResultCaptainMost RunsMost WicketsRanji Trophy2024–25Runners-upSachin BabyMohammed Azharuddeen (635)Jalaj Saxena (40)
Governing body
The Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) is the governing body for the Kerala cricket team. It was founded on 1951 and is affiliated to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Kerala State Sports Authority (KSSA). It is the parent body of the 14 district associations in Kerala.
Current squad Players with International caps are listed in bold. Name Birth date Batting style Bowling style Notes Batsmen Rohan Kunnummal Right-handed Right-arm medium List A Captain Salman Nizar Left-handed Right-arm off break Ahammad Imran Left-handed Right-arm off break Sachin Baby Left-handed Right-arm off-break Abhishek Nair Right-handed Right-arm off-break Krishna Prasad Right-handed Right-arm off break All-rounders Baba Aparajith Right-handed Right-arm off break Akshay Chandran Left-handed Slow left-arm orthodox Akhil Scaria Left-handed Right-arm medium Abdul Basith Right-handed Right-arm off break Wicket-keepers Mohammed Azharuddeen Right-handed First-class Captain Vishnu Vinod Right-handed Plays for Punjab Kings in IPL Sanju Samson Right-handed Twenty20 Captain Plays for Chennai Super Kings in IPL Spin-bowlers Ankit Sharma Left-handed Slow left-arm orthodox Vignesh Puthur Right-handed Slow left-arm unorthodox Plays for Rajasthan Royals in IPL Sreehari Nair Right-handed Slow left-arm orthodox Pace bowlers MD Nidheesh Right-handed Right-arm medium Eden Apple Tom Right-handed Right-arm medium Sharafuddeen Right-handed Right-arm medium Nedumankuzhy Basil Right-handed Right-arm medium KM Asif Right-handed Right-arm medium
Updated as on 1 February 2026
Support staff Position Name Team Manager Nazir Machan Head coach Amay Khurasiya Assistant coach Rajeesh Retnakumar Strength and conditioning Coach Vysakh Krishna Physiotherapist Unnikrishnan RS Performance Analyst Srivathsan P B Throw down Specialist Gireesh E K Team Masseur Jose N Team Coordinator Navin Joy Thattil
Stadiums
International stadiums
Active stadium
Sl. No Name City Capacity No. of matches First match Last match Test ODIs T20Is 1 Greenfield International Stadium Thiruvananthapuram 55,000 0 1 2
Former stadiums
Sl. No Name City Capacity No. of matches First match Last match Test ODIs T20Is 1 Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium Kochi 80,000 0 9 0 2 University Stadium Thiruvananthapuram 20,000 0 2 0
Other stadiums
Sl. No Name City Capacity 1 Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore Ground Ernakulam 5000 2 Conor Vayal Stadium Kannur 3 Military Maidan Kannur 4 Police Ground Kannur 2000 5 Cochin Refineries Ltd Ground Kochi 3000 6 Fort Cochin Parade Maidan Kochi 3000 7 Maharaja College Stadium Kochi 15,000 8 Premier Tyres Oval Kochi 10,000 9 St Paul's College Ground Kochi 10 Nehru Stadium Kottayam 18,000 11 Kozhikode Corporation EMS Stadium Kozhikode 15,000 12 Manachira Maidan Kozhikode 1000 13 Calicut Medical College Stadium Kozhikode 10,000 14 Medical College Ground Kozhikode 5000 15 Regional Engineering College Ground Kozhikode 3000 16 Malabar State Police Ground Malappuram 1000 17 Perintalmanna Cricket Stadium Malappuram 18 Fort Maidan Palakkad 10,000 19 The Government Victoria College Ground Palakkad 2000 20 Municipal Stadium Thalassery 7500 21 KCA Cricket Ground Thiruvananthapuram 22 Lakshmibhai National College of Physical Education Ground Thiruvananthapuram 10,000 23 Medical College Ground Thiruvananthapuram 2000 24 St. Xavier's College Ground, Thumba Thiruvananthapuram 25 Vellyani Agricultural College Ground Thiruvananthapuram 10,000 26 University Stadium Thiruvananthapuram 10,000 27 Municipal Stadium Thrissur 1500 28 Krishnagiri Stadium Wayanad 29 Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium Kollam 30,000 30 Sree Narayana College Ground Kollam 3000 31 Sanatana Dharma College Ground Alappuzha 32 Thiruvalla Municipal Stadium Pathanamthitta 33 Central Stadium Thiruvananthapuram
Famous players
+Players who have represented IndiaPlayerFormatsDebutTinu YohannanTest2001Shanthakumaran SreesanthTest/ODI/T20I2006Sanju SamsonODI/T20I2015Sandeep WarrierT20I2021Sujith SomasunderODI1996Sadagoppan RameshTest1999Robin UthappaODI/T20I2006
Players from Kerala who have played international cricket for another country, along with year of debut:
Krishna Chandran (2014) - United Arab Emirates Arun Poulose (2017) - Oman Mohammad Sanuth (2020) - Oman
Prominent cricketers at the domestic level: Ajay Varma Ajay Kudua Antony Sebastian B. Ramprakash Balan Pandit Basil Thampi Feroze V Rasheed Kelappan Thampuran K. N. Ananthapadmanabhan K Jayaraman Padmanabhan Prasanth Prasanth Parameswaran Raiphi Gomez Rohan Prem Sachin Baby Sony Cheruvathur Sreekumar Nair Sunil Oasis Thomas Mathew VA Jagadeesh
References
Bibliography
External links Kerala at CricketArchive Official website