Best playing 11 of Vijay Hazare Trophy 2024-25 ft. Karun Nair, Arshdeep Singh

Vijay Hazare Trophy 2024-25 is officially in the history books. Karnataka emerged as the Vijay Hazare Trophy champions for the fifth time in the tournament's history. It was Karnataka's fifth appearance in the final and they defeated Vidarbha to win the championship.

Talking about the final match, it was a high scoring contest at the newly built Kotambi Stadium in Baroda. Karnataka scored 348/6 in 50 overs, thanks to a hundred from Ravichandran Smaran. In response, Vidarbha got bowled out for 312 despite a century from opener Dhruv Shorey.

Now that the 2024-25 edition of Vijay Hazare Trophy has ended, here's a glance at the best playing XI from the competition.

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Openers - Mayank Agarwal (c) and Dhruv Shorey

Karnataka captain Mayank Agarwal will open the batting for this team alongside Vidarbha's Dhruv Shorey. Agarwal was the most successful opener in the tournament, scoring 651 runs in 10 innings, with his highest score being 139*. The right-handed batter recorded four centuries in the competition.

Dhruv Shorey scored a fantastic ton in the final, proving himself as a big match player. The Vidarbha opener scored total 494 runs in eight innings of Vijay Hazare Trophy 2024-25, registering three centuries and one fifty.

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Middle Order - Karun Nair, Siddhesh Veer, Ravichandran Smaran, Nikhil Naik (wk) and Shardul Thakur

Vidarbha skipper Karun Nair grabbed the headlines with his extraordinary batting performance in the road to the final. At one point in the tournament, Nair had an average of more than 750. He won the Man of the Tournament award for scoring 779 runs in eight innings, including five centuries.

Joining Nair in the middle-order will be Maharashtra's Siddhesh Veer and Karnataka's Ravichandran Smaran. Veer was the third-highest run-scorer in the tournament, aggregating 520 runs at a strike rate of 99.42 for Maharashtra. Meanwhile, Smaran finished with 433 runs in seven innings, including a century in the final and a half-century in the semifinal.

Maharashtra's Nikhil Naik will keep the wickets for this team. Naik was in impressive touch while playing as a finisher for Maharashtra in Vijay Hazare Trophy 2024-25. He scored 277 runs in seven innings at an average of 69.25 and a strike rate of 134.46.

Shardul Thakur from Mumbai will be the team's primary all-rounder. Thakur scored 132 runs in just four innings at an explosive strike rate of 148.31, while also taking 10 wickets in Vijay Hazare Trophy 2024-25.

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Bowlers - Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Vasuki Koushik and Shreyas Gopal

Arshdeep Singh will lead the pace attack of this team. The Punjab pacer topped the bowlers' leaderboad by scalping 20 wickets in just seven matches, recording two four-wicket hauls and one five-wicket haul.

The selectors rewarded Arshdeep with a place in the Champions Trophy 2025 Indian squad because of his fantastic bowling performances.

Tamil Nadu's Varun Chakravarthy will lead shoulder the spin department with Karnataka's leg-spinner Shreyas Gopal. Both spinners accounted for 18 wickets each. While Varun took 18 scalps in just six games, Gopal did it in 10 matches. Both bowlers had an economy rate of less than five in Vijay Hazare Trophy 2024-25.

Karnataka's right-arm medium pacer Vasuki Koushik completes the playing XI. Vasuki also bagged 18 wickets in Vijay Hazare Trophy 2024-25. He took one four-wicket haul and one five-wicket haul, with his best figures being 5/51. Overall, the medium pacer played a huge role in Karnataka's championship win.