When the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) expanded its domestic structure in 2018, Arunachal Pradesh entered senior men's cricket for the first time, alongside other northeastern and newly affiliated states. That expansion brought nine new teams, and they were given access to the Ranji Trophy, Vijay Hazare Trophy, and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy - competitions that form the backbone of Indian cricket's talent pipeline. Cricket in Arunachal Pradesh was long limited to junior levels in the premier domestic structure. Senior competition began in 2018-19 after full membership, leading to seven years of a slow, hard grind rather than a fairy-tale rise.

The reality of red-ball cricket

Arunachal Pradesh entered the Ranji Trophy in 2018-19 without a strong cricketing culture or seasoned players. Their debut season was harsh - heavy defeats, frequent innings losses, and a fragile team confidence. Arunachal Pradesh struggled in their early Ranji Trophy seasons, going winless in 2018-19 and 2019-20, with several innings defeats. Their breakthrough came in 2021-22 with a disciplined win over Bihar.

Rajesh Bishnoi, the professional player having previously appeared for Rajasthan, was the standout performer for Arunachal, earning Player of the Match for his match-winning performances with the bat (106 runs) and ball (5/103). Post that season, Bishnoi continued his domestic career, moving from Arunachal to Meghalaya for the 2022-23 Ranji Trophy. Nabam Abo's 6-for in the first innings, followed by 3 more in the second, gave him the best match figures and a pivotal role in Arunachal's first Ranji win.

Over the years, Techi Doria has been the team's best batter across formats, scoring 1000-plus runs in First-Class matches, while ex-Haryana batter Rahul Dalal played for them between 2019 and 2023 and scored 1822 runs at an average of 70.07 with the help of six hundreds, but later he moved to Meghalaya. Techi Neri has been the leading wicket-taker for Arunachal since 2018, wherein he has taken 41 wickets in 26 Ranji matches.

Arunachal Pradesh are yet to reach the Elite League in the Ranji Trophy even as peers like Bihar, Meghalaya, and Uttarakhand have occasionally broken through. Plate success can earn a promotion, but sustaining Elite status is challenging in India's complex domestic system.

Bihar returned to Ranji Trophy in 2018-19, progressing from Plate to Elite, though they've cycled between tiers. Manipur won the 2022-23 Plate final and earned promotion to the Elite group. Nagaland also reached the Plate final and Elite appearances multiple times. In the 2023-24 Ranji Trophy Plate group, Meghalaya reached the final but lost to Hyderabad by 5 wickets, finishing as runners-up. Puducherry, Uttarakhand, and Chandigarh advanced early in the elite division, while Mizoram and Sikkim remained languishing behind in the Plate group alongside Arunachal.

Playing records for nine new teams in the Ranji Trophy

In the Ranji Trophy, lots of teams suffer innings losses, but Arunchal's innings defeat by 551 and 446 runs against Goaand Meghalaya respectively rank among the biggest in Indian domestic cricket.. Arunachal lost every match in the 2025-26 season, each by an innings. They have suffered innings defeats in 23 games out of 36 losses, and five matches have been lost by more than 200 runs. Their average defeat margins are 200-400 runs, along with their innings defeats. As a comparison, Manipur had 15 and Mizoram, Meghalaya had 12 innings defeats in the Ranji Trophy till date.

Arunachal Pradesh's batting has frequently collapsed, with first-class totals often below 150. Sub-200 scores - 73 & 109 vs Meghalaya in 2025, 84 vs Goa in 2024, 105 vs Bihar in 2025, and 115 vs Manipur in 2024, and they often failed to post a competitive total and failed to take first innings lead, which underlines persistent inexperience and lack of depth, even against Plate Group opposition. They've managed first innings leads in only five out of the 41 games. They've been bowled out below 100 runs 16 times. They posted a total above 300-plus six times, in which they went to manage a draw in three matches. Their biggest total (460) came against Nagaland in 2020.

In bowling front, they rarely bowl sides out cheaply, regularly conceding massive first-innings totals. Plate Group opponents like Meghalaya (628/6), Sikkim (514/7), Manipur (505/3), and Bihar (542/9) have piled on big scores. Out of 57 innings, they bowled out the opposition only 27 times and only once below 100 runs, and only five times below 200, which exposed Arunachal's bowling limitations over the years. They have lost nearly 88% of their first-class matches, which puts them right at the top of an unwanted record.

Teams with the highest losing percentage in FC cricket (40+ matches)

Arunachal Pradesh's lone Ranji Trophy win gave the team belief, but the following four seasons were brutal - they lost all 21 matches after that, including every game in 2025-26 by an innings. Overall, they have won just 1 of 41 first-class matches. They have the lowest first-class win rate (2.4 %) this century among teams with 30+ matches. In the Ranji Trophy, Mizoram (19.5%) and Tripura (7.8%) trail them, while globally, teams like Sri Lanka's Kalutara Town Club (7.3%), Mpumalanga, Southern Punjab, and Quetta have also struggled.

White-ball game and the quiet progress

While red-ball cricket highlighted Arunachal's struggles, white-ball formats offered early hope, especially the 50-over format, where they have had the most success of the three formats. Their only win against a previously existing Ranji side (before the 2018/19 season) came in the 50-over format when they bested Assam by 22 runs in the 2023/24 season. In their debut Vijay Hazare campaign (2018-19), they beat Mizoram and finished with two wins - results that, though modest nationally, meant a great deal internally. Batters like Samarth Seth (345 runs at 49.28) and bowlers such as Sandeep Kumar Thakur provided early belief in Arunachal's debut List A season. But results remained scarce - after two early wins, they managed just four victories in the next seven Vijay Hazare editions. Their 12% win rate is the third lowest globally this century among teams with 30-plus List A matches.

In the Vijay Hazare Trophy, two of Arunachal's defeats - by 435 runs (vs Tamil Nadu) and by 397 runs (vs Bihar), are among the largest margin defeats in List A cricket in terms of runs. Arunachal also hold the ignominy of conceding 500+ totals twice in List A cricket - a feat no other domestic team has against their name. Arunachal lost a total of five List A matches by 250-plus margins - the most by any team in the world. Sri Lanka and Ireland each lost thrice by 250-plus runs in List A cricket.

They have suffered 200-plus runs defeats in 7 of the 20 matches, and by a margin of 7-plus wickets out of 41 losses. As a comparison with other plate group teams, Mizoram had 15, Sikkim had 10, and Meghalaya had 8 such defeats with a 100-plus runs margin in List A cricket to date. Sikkim suffered five 10-wicket defeats, and Mizoram had four such losses. Arunachal lost a total of nine List A matches by 200-plus balls to spare - the most for any team in this format. Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, and Kenya each have suffered six defeats by 200-plus balls remaining.

Numbers for all ten new teams in the List A cricket

Arunachal Pradesh have often posted below-par totals. They were bowled out for just 61 runs in their debut season against Meghalaya, 63 vs HP in 2023, 83 vs Bihar in 2021, and 95 vs Puducherri in 2018. They have been bowled out for sub-150 totals a record 18 times in the Vijay Hazare Trophy since 2018. While bowling, they rarely bowl out the opposition or stop them from posting big totals. They've bowled teams out in List A cricket in only 4 out of 48 completed innings in List A cricket.

Playing records for nine new teams in the Vijay Hazare Trophy

Arunachal showed brief competitiveness in the recent 2025-26 Vijay Hazare Trophy with a lone win over Mizoram, but a net run rate of -2.646 highlighted the gap to stronger Plate teams like Bihar and Manipur, the finalists of the season. Only Sikkim (89%) and Mizoram (87.2%) have worse List A loss rates than Arunachal Pradesh. Similar struggles are seen globally, with teams like Pakistan's Quetta Bears, South Africa's Limpopo, Bangladesh's Partex Sporting Club, and England's Unicorns ranking among the weakest in their domestic List A structures.

Lost in the fast-growing format

Playing records for nine new teams in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy

Arunachal Pradesh began their Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy journey in 2018-19, securing a win in their debut season. However, that remains their only T20 victory across eight editions and 50 matches. T20 cricket has been equally harsh for Arunachal. In the 2025 Plate SMAT, they lost all five matches, posted mostly sub-130 totals, and finished with the group's worst net run rate (-4.240), including heavy defeats to Sikkim and Nagaland. Repeated 10-wicket and 100-plus run losses underline the gap, especially as peers like Sikkim and Mizoram adapt better to the T20 format.

Numbers for all ten new teams in the T20 cricket

Arunachal are on a 44-match losing streak in T20s - the longest winless streak in T20 cricket by a distance. The second on the list is Pakistan's domestic team, Quetta Bears, with 26 successive losses between 2005 and 2012. Mizoram lost 23 T20 games in a row between 2019 and 2021. Arunachal Pradesh's lone win in 50 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy matches is the fewest by any domestic T20 side with 30-plus games, giving them the lowest win rate (2.0%). Comparable struggles include those of Pakistan's Quetta Bears, India's Sikkim and Mizoram, and teams like Kandy Customs SC, Navy SC, Mpumalanga, and Hyderabad Hawks across domestic structures.

Teams with the highest losing percentage in T20 cricket (40+ matches)

Living with records - for the wrong reasons

- Arunachal Pradesh lost all five of their games by an innings margin in the 2025-26 Ranji season. Since 2018, only five teams have lost five or more matches by an innings in a single season: Mizoram (5) in 2018-19, Manipur (6) in 2019-20 and (7) in 2023-24, Meghalaya (5), and Bihar (5) in 2024-25. Historically, Jammu & Kashmir (5) in 1959-60 and 1961-62, and Himachal Pradesh (5) in 1985-86 and 1987-88, have also suffered five-innings defeats in a Ranji season.

- Bihar's 574/6 (Vijay Hazare 2025-26) became the highest team score ever recorded in List A history, eclipsing the 506/2 previously held by Tamil Nadu - both achieved against Arunachal. Bihar's 38 sixes in that match set a new List-A record for a team innings, surpassing Canada's previous mark of 28 against Malaysia in 2019.

Highest totals in List-A cricket

- 397 runs victory margin for Bihar in the same game is now the second-largest margin in List-A history, with Arunachal Pradesh also holding the record after losing by 435 runs to Tamil Nadu in 2022. In that same match, against Arunachal, Bihar's Sakibul Gani scored the fastest century by an Indian and the third-fastest overall in List-A history, reaching three figures in record time (32 balls). Three of the top eight fattest List A individual centuries came against Arunachal.

- Tamil Nadu batter N Jagadeesan's 277 runs against Arunachal at Bengaluru in the 2022-23 VHT is the highest in all men's List A cricket. Jagadeesan and B Sai Sudharsan's 416-run opening stand in the same match against Arunachal is the first 400-plus partnership for any wicket in men's List A cricket.

- There have been 12 triple hundreds scored in the Ranji Trophy since the 2018-19 season, and four of them have come against Arunachal Pradesh - the most conceded by any team in this period. Mizoram conceded two 300s. Hyderabad's Tanmay Agarwal smashed an unbeaten 323 off 160 (the fastest recorded 300s in FC history (147 balls), Goa's Snehal Kauthankar (314*) and Kashyap Bakle (300*), and Mizoram's Taruwar Kohli (307*) are the other three with triple centuries vs Arunachal.

- Arunachal lost 36 out of 41 matches they played in First-class cricket, in which 23 matches they lost by an innings margins and five of those defeats have been by innings & 300-plus runs. England domestic teams Somerset (9 times in 2817 matches), Sussex (7 times in 3600 matches), Northamptonshire (6 times in 2525 matches), and South Australia (8 times in 1070 matches) have more innings & 300-plus runs defeats across the world in FC cricket. Tripura also suffered such losses five times (in 212 matches).

- In the 2024-25 Ranji season, Goa defeated Arunachal Pradesh by an innings and 551 runs - the biggest innings victory in Ranji history and seventh-largest in first-class cricket. Goa scored 727/2d, bowled out Arunachal for 84 and 92, and achieved a 743-run first-innings lead (third largest in a Ranji match). Snehal Kauthankar (314) and Kashyap Bakle (300) set a record 606-run partnership, the second-highest in first-class cricket after Sangakkara and Jayawardene's 624 in 2006. Goa's 727/2d in 92 overs came at a record 7.9 RPO - the fastest 700-plus total in first-class cricket. It was only the second time two batters scored triple centuries in the same Ranji innings, after WV Raman (313) and Arjun Kripal Singh (302*) in 1989.

- In a Ranji Trophy Plate Group encounter in 2025, Meghalaya's Akash Kumar Choudhary hit eight consecutive sixes against Arunachal Pradesh's Limar Dabi and registered the fastest fifty (11 balls) in First-Class cricket history. Railways' Ashutosh Sharma smashed a 50 off 11 balls against Arunachal Pradesh in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2023, breaking Yuvraj Singh's record of the fastest T20 fifty by an Indian, from the 16-year-old record of 12 balls from the 2007 T20 World Cup.

- Arunachal Pradesh were bowled out for 32 runs in just 9.1 overs by Jammu & Kashmir in the 2024 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and registered the second-lowest total in tournament history.

- Arunachal's Mibom Mosu conceded 116 runs in nine overs against Bihar, the second-most in a men's List A match, behind Puducherry's Aman Khan 1/123 (10 overs). Two other Arunachal Pradesh bowlers, Suryansh Singh (99) and TNR Mohit (98), also neared 100, making only the second instance of three bowlers giving 90-plus runs in a List A innings.

- Arunachal Pradesh has faced heavy defeats, but its focus is on the long game. Domestic cricket for them is about existence and growth, not instant success. Season after season, far from India's cricketing hubs, they take the field with bags packed and squad ready, confronting the country's toughest challenge despite the scoreboard rarely favouring them.