Sheffield Shield 2024-25, Australia’s premier domestic multi-day tournament, will kickstart on October 8. 

The 123rd edition of the tournament will continue till March 2025 with the final scheduled for March 26, 2025.

Australia’s inter-state domestic first-class competition will have six teams vying for the title over a total of 31 matches. All group stage matches will be played over four days with the final being a five-day affair.

New South Wales meet South Australia in their opener in Sydney whereas Victoria square up against Tasmania in Melbourne. 

Meanwhile, three-time defending champions Western Australia host Queensland in Perth to round off the first-round fixtures from October 8 to October 11.

Each team in the Sheffield Shield will play the other teams twice, at home and away, in a double round-robin format. 

The top two teams after the league stage face off in the final with the top-ranked team getting the advantage of hosting the contest.

New South Wales will host their matches at Sydney whereas South Australia will play their home matches at Adelaide. 

Victoria and Tasmania will be based out of Melbourne and Hobart respectively, whereas Western Australia and Queensland will have Perth and Brisbane as their home centres.

The first few rounds of the Sheffield Shield 2024-25 will be looked upon with added interest as it precedes India’s tour of Australia from November 2024.

All the top stars of Australian cricket will be turning up in the domestic competition to get valuable game time before the five-match Border-Gavaskar Series against India.

Australia Test team captain Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Mitchell Starc, Marnus Labuschagne, Usman Khawaja and Nathan Lyon will all turn up for their respective domestic sides in the initial rounds of the Sheffield Shield 2024-25.

Sheffield Shield 2024-25 schedule and live match start times

All match times are in India Standard Time (IST)

Tuesday to Friday, October 8-11, 2024

New South Wales vs South Australia - 5:00 AM

Victoria vs Tasmania - 5:00 AM

Western Australia vs Queensland - 8:00 AM

Sunday to Wednesday, October 20-23, 2024 

Victoria vs New South Wales - 5:00 AM

Queensland vs South Australia - 5:30 AM

Western Australia vs Tasmania - 8:00 AM

Friday to Monday, November 1-4, 2024 

New South Wales vs Queensland - 5:00 AM

Tasmania vs Western Australia - 5:00 AM

South Australia vs Victoria - 5:30 AM

Thursday to Sunday, November 14-17, 2024 

South Australia vs New South Wales - 5:30 AM

Friday to Monday, November 15-18, 2024

Victoria vs Western Australia - 5:00 AM

Queensland vs Tasmania - 5:30 AM

Saturday to Tuesday, November 23-26, 2024 

South Australia vs Western Australia - 5:30 AM

Sunday to Wednesday, November 24-27, 2024

New South Wales vs Tasmania - 5:00 AM

Queensland vs Victoria - 5:30 AM

Friday to Monday, December 6-9, 2024 

New South Wales vs Western Australia - 5:00 AM

Victoria vs Queensland - 5:00 AM

Tasmania vs South Australia - 5:00 AM

Saturday to Tuesday, February 8-11, 2025 

Tasmania vs Victoria - 5:00 AM

Queensland vs New South Wales - 5:30 AM

Western Australia vs South Australia - 8:00 AM

Tuesday to Friday, February 18-21, 2025 

New South Wales vs Victoria - 5:00 AM

Queensland vs Western Australia - 5:30 AM

South Australia vs Tasmania - 5:30 AM

Thursday to Sunday, March 6-9, 2025 

Victoria vs South Australia - 5:00 AM

Tasmania vs Queensland - 5:00 AM

Western Australia vs New South Wales - 8:00 AM

Saturday to Tuesday, March 15-18, 2025 

Tasmania vs New South Wales - 4:30 AM

South Australia vs Queensland - 5:30 AM

Western Australia vs Victoria - 8:00 AM

Wednesday to Sunday, March 26-30, 2025

Sheffield Shield 2024-25 Final

Sheffield Shield 2024-25 teams and squads

Western Australia: Sam Whiteman (c), Cameron Bancroft, Mahli Beardman, Hilton Cartwright, Cooper Connolly, Brody Couch, Keaton Critchell, Sam Fanning, Cameron Gannon, Jayden Goodwin, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Liam Haskett, Baxter Holt, Josh Inglis, Bryce Jackson, Matthew Kelly, Mitchell Marsh, Hamish McKenzie, Lance Morris, Joel Paris, Jhye Richardson, Corey Rocchiccioli, D'Arcy Short, Charlie Stobo, Ashton Turner, Josh Vernon, Corey Wasley, Teague Wyllie

Queensland: Marnus Labuschagne (c), Xavier Bartlett, Max Bryant, Hugo Burdon, Jack Clayton, Liam Guthrie, Lachlan Hearne, Usman Khawaja, Angus Lovell, Ben McDermott, Michael Neser, Jimmy Peirson, Matt Renshaw, Jem Ryan, Gurinder Sandhu, Jack Sinfield, Mark Steketee, Tom Straker, Bryce Street, Connor Sully, Mitchell Swepson, Callum Vidler, Hugh Weibgen, Tom Whitney, Jack Wildermuth

South Australia: Nathan McSweeney (c), Wes Agar, Kyle Brazell, Jordan Buckingham, Aidan Cahill, Alex Carey, Harry Conway, Brendan Doggett, Daniel Drew, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Mackenzie Harvey, Travis Head, Henry Hunt, Spencer Johnson, Thomas Kelly, Jake Lehmann, Ben Manenti, Harry Matthias, Nathan McAndrew, Conor McInerney, Harry Nielsen, Lloyd Pope, Jason Sangha, Liam Scott, Campbell Thompson, Henry Thornton

Tasmania: Jordan Silk (c), Gabe Bell, Iain Carlisle, Nicholas Davis, Jake Doran, Kieran Elliot, Nathan Ellis, Jarrod Freeman, Bradley Hope, Caleb Jewell, Matthew Kuhnemann, Raf MacMillan, Riley Meredith, Lawrence Neil-Smith, Aidan O'Connor, Mitchell Owen, Nivethan Radhakrishnan, Billy Stanlake, Charlie Wakim, Tim Ward, Jake Weatherald, Beau Webster, Macalister Wright

New South Wales: Moises Henriques (c), Charlie Anderson, Sean Abbott, Jackson Bird, Pat Cummins, Joel Davies, Oliver Davies, Ben Dwarshuis, Jack Edwards, Matthew Gilkes, Chris Green, Ryan Hackney, Ryan Hadley, Liam Hatcher, Josh Hazlewood, Ryan Hicks, Daniel Hughes, Hayden Kerr, Sam Konstas, Nathan Lyon, Nic Maddinson, Blake Nikitaras, Jack Nisbet, Kurtis Patterson, Josh Philippe, William Salzmann, Tanveer Sangha, Lachlan Shaw, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Chris Tremain, Adam Zampa

Victoria: Will Sutherland (c), Austin Anlezark, Liam Blackford, Scott Boland, Dylan Brasher, Josh Brown, Ashley Chandrasinghe, Xavier A Crone, Harry Dixon, Sam Elliott, Peter Handscomb, Sam Harper, Marcus Harris, Campbell Kellaway, Jai Lemire, Reiley Mark, Glenn Maxwell, Cameron McClure, Jonathan Merlo, Todd Murphy, Fergus O'Neill, Tyler Pearson, Mitchell Perry, Will Pucovski, Tom Rogers, Matthew Short, Peter Siddle, Doug Warran

Photo credit: Imago