Vijay Hazare Trophy Final: As Uttar Pradesh and Mumbai lock horns in the final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy on Sunday, all eyes will be on opening batsman Prithvi Shaw as he has already set the tournament ablaze.
Shaw has amassed 754 runs in the ongoing tournament, including an unbeaten 227. The youngster has so far registered four centuries and has already registered the record for scoring most runs in a single edition of the Vijay Hazare Trophy.
The 21-year-old Shaw who had a torrid run with the bat in Australia, has quickly managed to change his fortunes and he is now in the running to be picked in the Indian squad for the upcoming ODI series against England.
Uttar Pradesh has also had a good run in the tournament and the side defeated Gujarat in the semi-finals to set up the summit clash against Mumbai.Shaw has had a problem with left-arm seamers in the past, and this can be brought to the forefront by Uttar Pradesh’s Yash Dayal. However, Dayal won’t have it easy as Shaw is very much familiarised with conditions at the Kotla, as he plays for Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
It is not as if Mumbai only has Shaw in their ranks, the other batters — Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan — are yet to come to the party and Mumbai would be hoping that they all bring their ‘A’ game in the summit clash.
Mumbai bowlers — Dhawal Kulkarni, Prashant Solanki, Tushar Deshpande — have been fruitful this season and they would be hoping to continue their good run in the final as well. Mumbai has won the tournament on three occasions and the Shaw-led side would be hoping for their fourth Vijay Hazare title.
On the other hand, Uttar Pradesh would be looking to win their second Vijay Hazare title. They had shared the 2004-05 title after the final against Tamil Nadu ended in a tie.
Mumbai Squad: Prithvi Shaw (c), Aditya Tare (wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shams Mulani, Shivam Dube, Aman Hakim Khan, Sarfaraz Khan, Tanush Kotian, Tushar Deshpande, Dhawal Kulkarni, Prashant Solanki, Akhil Herwadkar, Sujit Nayak, Siddhesh Lad, Akash Parkar, Sairaj Patil, Atharva Ankolekar, Atif Attarwala, Mohit Avasthi, Hardik Tamore, Siddharth Raut, Chinmay Sutar
Uttar Pradesh Squad: Karan Sharma (c), Upendra Yadav (wk), Madhav Kaushik, Samarth Singh, Priyam Garg, Akshdeep Nath, Sameer Choudhary, Shivam Sharma, Shivam Mavi, Yash Dayal, Aaqib Khan, Almas Shaukat, Rinku Singh, Abhishek Goswami, Kartik Tyagi, Aryan Juyal, Mohsin Khan, Shanu Saini, Aishwarya Mourya, Purnank Tyagi