This has been due to the emergence of a number of young players like K. L. Rahul, Manish Pandey, Karun Nair, Shreyas Gopal & Krishnappa Gowtham in presence of established players like Vinay Kumar, Abhimanyu Mithun, Sreenath Aravind, Robin Uthappa & C. M. Gautam In the 90s, Karnataka was dominant along with Mumbai, winning the Ranji Trophies in the 1995/96, 1998/99 and the 1997/98 seasons, winning the finals against Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh respectively.

This strong run in the Ranji Trophy was due to the emergence of players like Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Sunil Joshi, Venkatesh Prasad, Vijay Bharadwaj & Dodda Ganesh all of whom went on to represent country.

As international players had to move in and out of the squad due to their national duties, the team could not adjust well with the changes in a short period.

The finals took place at the picturesque Gangotri Glades in Mysuru, where Karnataka, backed by a charged full-house crowd, came up with a spirited performance but lost to Mumbai by just 6 runs.

The team emerged winners in the 2013–14 season under the captaincy of Vinay Kumar beating Maharashtra by 7 wickets in the finals played at Hyderabad.

By doing so, they not only repeated the historic treble of the previous season, but also became only the second domestic team (after Bombay) to bag back-to-back Irani Cups.

Karnataka's only loss came against Maharashtra in their final league game, which ended an unbeaten streak of 37 first-class matches (20 wins, 17 draws) that stretched back to November 2012.

In the 2016–17 Ranji season, Karnataka had a good run until the quarter-finals, where they were beaten by Tamil Nadu in a low scoring game.