Vijay Hazare Trophy 2019-20: Best XI of the tournament

After a set of controversial knock-out games, the Vijay Hazare Trophy once again looked towards the VJD method to determine the result in the final and that saw Karnataka win the game by 60 runs. The south-Indian side triumphed for the fourth time in the tournament history and were thoroughly ahead in all departments in comparison to their opponents.

Tamil Nadu cruised through the group stages, winning all their 9 games in the Elite Group C and remained unbeaten till they met Karnataka in the final. It turned out to be a major disappointment for Dinesh Karthik and his troops to come so close yet so far, but there are a number of positives to take out for the sides.

Here’s a small tribute to all the exceptional individual performances this edition by throwing light on the best XI of the tournament.

1. KL Rahul  – wicketkeeper (Karnataka)

Despite having a decent World Cup campaign in the absence of the first-choice opener Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul turned up big time in the Vijay Hazare trophy and announced to the world he’s not done yet. The 27-year-old scored runs consistently alongside his partner in crime Devdutt Padikkal and Manish Pandey as they churned out a stupendous title-winning campaign.

Rahul chipped in with 598 runs in 11 innings at an average of 66.44 and a strike-rate just in excess of 80. In most of his knocks, he took the backseat and provided solid platforms for the likes of Padikkal and Manish Pandey to get the side to a big total. His campaign also included one century against Kerala and five half-centuries.

The wicket-keeper batsman also had a decent time behind the stumps, solidifying his claim for the keeper-batsman position in the limited-overs, which is left vacant with the absence of MS Dhoni. If he can keep going this way, it won’t be long before he will be India’s first-choice keeper-batsman ahead of Rishabh Pant.