As the 2025-26 Ranji Trophy takes a break for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, ESPNcricinfo picks five players who made a mark in the first five rounds of the 2025-26 season.
Auqib Nabi (J&K) - Wickets 29 | Average 13.27
A swing bowler with immaculate control, Nabi, 29, has been delivering standout performances in the Ranji Trophy for two seasons now. He's not a 140kph express quick - around 125-130 kph at best - but he's someone who can make the new ball talk, like Bhuvneshwar Kumar did.
In the 2024-25 Ranji Trophy, Nabi averaged 13.93 for his 44 wickets - more than any seamer in the country, and overall second only to Vidarbha spinner Harsh Dubey. At the Duleep Trophy in August, he produced a moment that grabbed national attention: four wickets in four balls for North Zone against East Zone.
He began the Ranji Trophy with a five-for against Mumbai, but it's over the last few weeks that he's truly surged. In the fourth round, Nabi's five-wicket haul powered J&K's first-ever win over Delhi. A week later, he took 4 for 39 against Hyderabad, helping J&K secure a first-innings lead that turned into a match-winning one. Then came the spell of the season so far: 7 for 24 against Rajasthan that earned J&K a bonus-point win.
With this level of consistency and impact, how much longer before Nabi gets a call-up to the India A squad?
R Smaran (Karnataka) - Runs 595 | Average 119.00
Thirteen first-class games into his career, 22-year old Smaran already has three double-centuries - two of them in this Ranji season. A left-hand, top-order batter who first made his name in T20 cricket, he got his opportunity in red-ball cricket only last year when Karnataka moved on from Manish Pandey. Smaran has ensured the transition has been seamless, slotting in with a maturity well beyond his age and experience.
Both his double-tons this season have come in matches that Karnataka won comfortably. His unbeaten 220 against Kerala was on a turning surface in Mangalapuram, where he anchored a commanding first-innings total that led to an innings victory.
His most recent effort - an unbeaten 227 in Hubli - was in completely different conditions: a green-tinged pitch, Karnataka wobbling at 64 for 3, with Smaran rebuilding the innings alongside Karun Nair before batting through.
Smaran combines elegance with power and is confident against spin. His strength off the back foot adds another layer to a well-rounded game. Having made his mark in white-ball cricket last season, he has continued to evolve in red-ball cricket too, ensuring he is nowhere close to falling prey to the second-season syndrome.
Prithvi Shaw (Maharashtra) - Runs 470 runs | Average 67.14
Prithvi Shaw is outside the top ten run-scorers this season, but the impact he's made and the circumstances of his return is noteworthy. He's been a typically robust presence at the top, taking pressure off Ruturaj Gaikwad, who has moved to a stable role in the middle order. Shaw, 26, has scored his runs at a strike rate of 92.33 - an indication of his dominance.
Having left Mumbai, his start for Maharashtra was inauspicious, with familiar failings resurfacing when he was caught in the slips for a four-ball duck on debut against Kerala. He bounced back to make a barnstorming 75 in the second innings.
Shaw's impact was felt against Chandigarh, when he made 222 off just 156 balls to help Maharashtra race to 359 for 3 in just 52 overs, setting up a target they successfully defended after it looked like the game would end in a draw. Shaw's innings gave Maharashtra a little over four sessions to bowl Chandigarh out and secure their first outright win.
Since then, Shaw has made scores of 71 and 74 against Karnataka and Punjab; the 74 coming in a bonus-point win that put them second in Group B.
Abhinav Tejrana (Goa) - Runs 651 runs |Average 93.00
A stylish left-hand batter, Tejrana, 24, found opportunities hard to come by in Delhi and made the move to Goa ahead of the 2023-24 season. After two strong years in the Under-23 circuit, he finally earned his Ranji debut this season - and announced himself in stunning fashion. On debut, he struck a match-winning double-century against Chandigarh, a knock that justified Goa's faith in him.
He backed it up with a composed half-century against Karnataka, and followed up with his second hundred of the season, this time against Punjab. And in the fifth round that ended on Wednesday, Tejrana compiled a fighting 118 against a high-quality Saurashtra attack - he was one of the few Goa batters to show resistance in an innings defeat.
As the season pauses for the white-ball leg, Tejrana is in line to make his List A and T20 debuts for his adopted state.
Shams Mulani (Mumbai) - Wickets 28 wickets l Average 21.10
Mulani, 28, topped the Ranji wicket charts in 2021-22, finished second in 2022-23, and was third last season. This year, he's once again on course to secure a top-three finish - underlining a level of consistency few spinners in the country have matched.
Yet, despite this sustained excellence, he has struggled to become a regular in India A squads, largely because there is an abundance of left-arm spin allrounders. Even so, Mulani belongs in the top bracket of left-arm spinners in the country, alongside Harsh Dubey, Manav Suthar and R Sai Kishore.
This season, he has been central to Mumbai's surge to the top of Group D, influencing games with both bat and ball. In the season-opener in Srinagar, he hit a vital 41 in the second innings to stretch Mumbai's lead to 243, before running through J&K with a match-defining 7 for 46 in a tense 35-run win.
In the match against Himachal, he scored a composed half-century to help build a commanding first-innings total and set up the follow-on, after which he delivered 5 for 37 to seal Mumbai's second successive victory.