Vijay Hazare Trophy to commence on February 20: Details here
Vijay Hazare Trophy, InDia's premier domestic One-Day competition, will be underway on February 20. As many as 38 teams have been divided into five Elite Groups (A, B, C, D and E) and one Plate Group. The tournament will act as a platform for a number of Indian players to impress the selectors ahead of the three-ODI series against England. Here are the details.
The matches will be held in six centres
Taking cue from the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, the BCCI has created six centres for the impending tournament. The matches will be held across venues in Surat, Indore, Bangalore, Jaipur, Kolkata and Chennai (Start-time of matches: 9 AM IST). While Star Sports network is the official broadcaster of the tournament, live streaming will also be available on Hotstar app.
A look at the groups
Elite A (Surat): Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Tripura, Hyderabad, Baroda, Goa Elite B (Indore): Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Jharkhand, MP, Vidarbha, AP Elite C (Bangalore): Karnataka, UP, Kerala, Odisha, Railways, Bihar Elite D (Jaipur): Delhi, Mumbai, Maharashtra, HP, Rajasthan, Pondicherry Elite E (Kolkata): Bengal, Services, J&K, Saurastra, Haryana, Chandigarh Plate (Chennai): Uttarakhand, Nagaland, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Sikkim
Defending champions Karnataka to face UP in their opener
Vijay Hazare Trophy defending champions Karnataka have a spot in Group C. They will lock horns with Uttar Pradesh in their opening encounter on February 20 in Bengaluru. Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu, who recently won the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, are placed in Group B. The Dinesh Karthik-led side will lock horns with Punjab in their opener in Indore.
League stage will run from February 20 to March 1
The league phase of the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2020/21 is set to run from February 20 to March 1. Meanwhile, the knockouts will begin with the Eliminator on March 7. This will be followed by quarter-finals on March 8 and 9 respectively. Both the semi-finals will take place on March 11, with the final on March 14. Here is the full schedule.
India's white-ball specialists to feature in the tournament
Indian middle-order batsman Shreyas Iyer is set to lead Mumbai, while Bhuvneshwar Kumar will captain UP in the tournament. The flamboyant Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan will also feature for Delhi, who will be led by Pradeep Sangwan. Prithvi Shaw, who has been named Mumbai's vice-captain, would aim to regain the trust of selectors. Meanwhile, Krunal Pandya will lead Baroda in the tournament.
Arjun Tendulkar also selected for the tournament
Arjun Tendulkar, the son of legend Sachin Tendulkar, will also play for Mumbai in the upcoming tournament. In the recently-concluded IPL 2021 Auction, he was bought by Mumbai Indians for Rs. 20 lakh. Here are the full squads for the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2020/21.
