Vijay Hazare Trophy (VHT) is in the news this time. This tournament, which is going to start from December 24, has been discussed for the last two months. This is because legends like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are going to play in this List-A tournament. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has asked all the centrally contracted players including Virat-Rohit to play at least two matches in the VHT 2025-26 season.
This tournament of 50 over format may be on everyone’s lips right now because of Kohli-Rohit, but despite being an immense T20 cricket, its importance has not diminished. Everyone saw the comeback of Karun Nair in the last VHT season. Like Karun, many players have made their name by playing in this tournament and traveled to Team India.
Karun Nair
Experienced batsman Karun Nair was out of the Indian team for 8 years. He again showed his dominance by scoring 779 runs in 8 innings in the last VHT season. Karun scored 5 centuries, which is the joint record for most centuries in a single VHT season. He was out only twice in the entire season, due to which his average was 389.50. He had taken Vidarbha to the finals under his captaincy. After VHT, Karun also performed well in the Ranji Trophy and returned to the Indian Test team after a long time for the England tour.
Also read: When and who has become the winner in Vijay Hazare Trophy? See the complete list from 2008 till now
Ruturaj Gaikwad
Maharashtra captain Ruturaj Gaikwad is just 77 runs away from joining the club of batsmen who have scored 3000 runs in VHT. He has scored 2923 runs in 50 innings in this tournament at an average of 63.54. During this period, he has scored 13 centuries, which includes a double century. Rituraj had scored 660 runs in just 5 innings in the 2022-23 VHT season, due to which he soon got a chance to make his ODI debut for Team India.
Also read:Kohli, Rohit and Gill will play in Vijay Hazare Trophy, complete list of star players
Shreyas Iyer
All eyes were on Shreyas Iyer during the last VHT season. Due to ignoring domestic cricket, he was out of BCCI’s central contract and it was not certain that he would play in the Champions Trophy 2025, but this Mumbai batsman, who scored 2 centuries in 5 matches, told the selectors why he should be kept in the team. Shreyas was then selected for the Champions Trophy and he emerged as the highest run-scorer in India’s title win.
Dinesh Karthik
Wicketkeeper batsman Dinesh Karthik is second only to Ankit Bawne (4010) in terms of scoring most runs in VHT. Karthik played 79 matches in this tournament, in which he scored 3433 runs at an average of 56.27 in 71 innings. Due to the presence of Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the Indian team, Karthik did not get that many opportunities in international cricket, but he made a place in Team India as a batsman many times by scoring runs continuously in domestic cricket.
Jaydev Unadkat
Former Saurashtra captain Jaydev Unadkat was the bowler taking the highest wicket (19) in the 2022 VHT season. He ended the drought of 14 years by winning the title for Saurashtra. In fact, when VHT came into existence in 2008, Saurashtra had become the champion in the first season but since then it had to remain empty handed. Unadkat ended Saurashtra’s wait for the VHT Trophy. Left arm fast bowler Unadkat is counted among the legends of domestic cricket. He returned to Team India at the end of 2022 due to his consistent performance in VHT and Ranji Trophy.
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