Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2026: Schedule, Groups, Squads, Round 1 Fixtures and Where to Watch

The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2026 begins on Saturday, 14 November, and runs until the final on 6 December. India's domestic T20 championship, now in its 19th edition, has 38 teams this year, and it arrives at the perfect moment for players chasing a deal: the IPL 2027 mini-auction is on 16 December. Here is everything you need to follow SMAT 2026.

SMAT 2026 at a glance

• Dates: 14 November to 6 December 2026
• Teams: 38 (32 in the Elite section, 6 in the Plate group)
• Defending champions: Jharkhand, who beat Haryana in last season's final in Pune
• Most titles: Tamil Nadu (three)
• Live streaming: JioHotstar app and website
• TV: Star Sports Network (selected matches)

Format: how SMAT 2026 works

The 32 Elite teams are split into four groups of eight, and each team plays the others in its group once. According to Wisden, the group stage runs from 14 to 26 November. The top two from each group (eight teams) move into a Super League of two groups of four, played from 30 November to 4 December. The winner of each Super League group goes through to the final on 6 December.

The six Plate teams play their own competition, and the Plate winner earns promotion to the Elite section for the next season. Mizoram, last year's Plate winners, are now in Elite Group A.

SMAT 2026 groups

Plate group: Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Services, Sikkim.

Group matches are spread across Mumbai (Wankhede and the MCA ground at BKC), Indore (Holkar Stadium and Daly College), Mohali, New Chandigarh, Kolkata (Eden Gardens and Jadavpur University) and Sovima in Nagaland.

Round 1 fixtures and timings (14 November, IST)

9:00 am: Chandigarh vs Baroda (Mumbai), Punjab vs Haryana (Indore), Maharashtra vs Puducherry (Mohali), Hyderabad vs Mumbai (Kolkata). Plate: Nagaland vs Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh vs Manipur (Sovima, 8:30 am).

11:00 am: Mizoram vs Jharkhand (Wankhede), Saurashtra vs Bihar (Indore), Tripura vs Andhra (New Chandigarh), Gujarat vs Odisha (Eden Gardens).

1:30 pm: Rajasthan vs Uttar Pradesh (Mumbai), Railways vs Tamil Nadu (Indore), Himachal Pradesh vs Assam (Mohali), Vidarbha vs Goa (Kolkata). Plate: Services vs Sikkim (Sovima, 1:00 pm).

4:30 pm: Karnataka vs Bengal (Wankhede), Jammu & Kashmir vs Delhi (Indore), Madhya Pradesh vs Kerala (New Chandigarh), Uttarakhand vs Chhattisgarh (Eden Gardens).

India stars to watch in SMAT 2026

• Suryakumar Yadav, Mumbai (captain): India's T20 World Cup-winning captain leads a Mumbai side that also has Shivam Dube, Shardul Thakur, Sarfaraz Khan and Musheer Khan. Surya recently admitted it has been "very difficult" since losing his India place; read what he said about life after the World Cup and his SMAT target.
• Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Bihar (captain for the first two games): The 15-year-old is set to become the youngest captain in T20 cricket, according to The Hindu. Bihar open against Saurashtra in Indore.
• Sanju Samson, Kerala (captain): another member of India's World Cup-winning squad, leading Kerala in Group C.
• Varun Chakaravarthy, Tamil Nadu: R Sai Kishore has taken over as Tamil Nadu captain, but coach Yo Mahesh called Varun's presence a big boost. T Natarajan is also in the squad.
• Mohammed Shami, Bengal: in action in Round 1, days after he retired from Test cricket. Bengal, led by Abhimanyu Easwaran, also have Mukesh Kumar and Shahbaz Ahmed.
• Delhi's pace attack: Ayush Badoni's side can call on Harshit Rana, Mayank Yadav, Ishant Sharma and Simarjeet Singh.
• Others: Rajat Patidar (Madhya Pradesh captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad and Prithvi Shaw (Maharashtra), Krunal Pandya (Baroda captain), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (Uttar Pradesh), Yuzvendra Chahal (Haryana) and Manish Pandey and Karun Nair (Karnataka).

Players on India duty in New Zealand, such as Gaikwad, are not available while the ODI series is on.

Why SMAT 2026 matters

With the IPL retention deadline on 17 November and the auction a month away, uncapped players have only a handful of games to impress scouts. For capped players left out of India's white-ball squads, it is a chance to make a case before the next international season. We will track the big performances, and our players section has profiles of most of the names above.

Sources: Sportstar, Outlook India, Wisden, The Hindu, The New Indian Express, ESPNcricinfo. Fixtures and timings as published on 13 November 2026; check BCCI.tv for late changes.