Punjab to open Ranji Trophy 2026-27 campaign against Assam at New PCA Stadium

Punjab will open its Ranji Trophy 2026-27 campaign against Assam at the New PCA Stadium in New Chandigarh starting Sunday. The match comes in a group that also contains Saurashtra, Andhra and Karnataka.

Assam collected only three points last season and narrowly avoided relegation to the Plate division. Punjab arrive as a revamped unit with Amit Uniyal appointed head coach and a focus on a young batting core; international commitments rule Prabhsimran Singh and Naman Dhir out of the first two rounds, creating an opportunity for Harnoor Singh Pannu.

The southpaw opener struck 170 against Kerala on his Punjab debut last season at the PCA New Cricket Stadium Ground B, Mullanpur in New Chandigarh on October 26, 2025, but finished with a sequence of middling scores thereafter. That innings is the most significant top-order contribution mentioned for Pannu in the build-up to this season.

Venue returns from last year favour seam bowling: in the two games played at the ground, pacers averaged 27 while the tweakers averaged close to 37. Punjab’s seam options include Umesh Yadav and Gurnoor Brar.

Punjab have retained attacking options from their recent rosters, with IPL players Ramandeep Singh and Salil Arora keeping their places. Emanjot Singh Chahal, who captained the Under-23 side last season, has been elevated to First-Class cricket after taking a 10-for for Rest of India against Tamil Nadu U-23 last week.

Assam have kept their top-four run-scorers from last season — Sibsankar Das, Swarupam Purkayastha, Sumit Ghadigaonkar and captain Denish Das — intact. Pacer Mukhtar Hussain, who had replaced Akash Deep in the Duleep Trophy in 2025, took 11 wickets at an average of 56 last season and is described in the build-up as needing a drastic upturn to be in contention again even at zonal level.

The two teams will meet at the New PCA Stadium in New Chandigarh on Sunday to kick off Punjab’s Ranji Trophy 2026-27 campaign against Assam.