Top 10 Team India performers in the Vijay Hazare Trophy

Another season of India’s premier domestic one-day competition, the Vijay Hazare Trophy, ended with Gujarat taking the top honours in a maiden title triumph. Although the winning team did play some excellent cricket throughout the tournament, the one man who played the biggest hand for them was allrounder Axar Patel.Axar and a number of his Team India mates performed quite well in the tournament, including those who even made it to the national team based on their performances. With the 2015/16 Vijay Hazare Trophy now over, we look back at some of the better performers from among those who will be representing India in the upcoming Australia series.

#1 Axar Patel

MAT	RUNS	AVG	HS	WKTS	AVG	BBI
9	220	36.66	75	19	16.09	6/43

Axar Patel was easily the best performer in the tournament not only among Team India players, but among all of those who participated. He did full justice to the allrounder tag by picking up wickets with his left-arm spin and scoring useful runs in the lower order for Gujarat.

The icing on the cake for Patel was his team laying hands on the Vijay Hazare Trophy for the very first time. Axar Patel’s top performance in the tournament came in the semi-finals when he picked up 6 for 43 to propel Gujarat to the final.

#2 Yuvraj Singh

MAT	RUNS	AVG	HS
6	346	69.20	98

Yuvraj Singh’s superb performance with the bat in the Vijay Hazare Trophy helped him force his way into the Indian team once again. With close to 350 runs at an average of just below 70, Yuvraj played a stellar role in taking his state side Punjab to the knockout round.

The southpaw was at his fluent best scoring his runs at a strike rate of above 100 and hitting as many as 16 sixes in the tournament. Yuvraj Singh ended up being the 5th highest run-scorer in the latest edition of the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

#3 Rishi Dhawan

MAT	RUNS	AVG	HS	WKTS	AVG	BBI
7	302	100.66	117*	9	37.00	3/46

Himachal Pradesh allrounder Rishi Dhawan is one of the new recruits for India in the forthcoming tour to Australia. Considering his incredible performance in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, his selection should not come as much of a surprise.

Rishi scored heavily in the tournament with 302 runs and ended up with an average in excess of 100. His highest score in the tournament was an unbeaten 117 which he scored in a group encounter against Madhya Pradesh. Dhawan was also quite decent with the ball and managed to claim 9 wickets in his 7 matches.

#4 Ravichandran Ashwin

MAT	WKTS	AVG	BBI
8	14	17.42	3/31

Ravichandran Ashwin’s dream run with the ball continued in the Vijay Hazare Trophy as well. His 14 wickets played a major part in allowing Tamil Nadu to go as far as the semi-finals in the tournament.

Although Ashwin did not come up with a big performance in any particular game, he kept chipping away at the wickets quite consistently across all matches. He ended the tournament as the leading wicket taker for his state side and also scored a few useful runs for them in the lower order.

#5 Brainder Sran

MAT	WKTS	AVG	BBI
7	14	27.42	4/60

Yuvraj Singh is not the only player from Punjab who has made his way into the Indian team. One of their seamers, left-armer Brainder Sran has also managed to break through courtesy of a fine performance in the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Although he has not been the most economical of bowlers, he has surely picked up wickets consistently. Sran ended the tournament with 14 wickets at a pretty decent average of 27.42 and was Punjab’s highest wicket-taker in the tournament.

#6 Murali Vijay

MAT	RUNS	AVG	HS
7	266	38.00	74

Team India’s Test opener Murali Vijay came up with quite a good batting performance in the 2015/16 Vijay Hazare Trophy. He did not get big hundreds but put on some decent scores on the board including a couple of fifties.

Vijay provided good support to the likes of Baba Aparajith and Abhinav Mukund in pushing Tamil Nadu to the semi-finals, where they lost to eventual champions Gujarat. He scored his runs at a healthy average of 38 and a good strike rate of just below 90.

#7 Ishant Sharma

MAT	WKTS	AVG	BBI
6	10	18.20	5/21

Ishant Sharma seems to be getting better as a bowler with every passing day and he proved it with a clinical performance in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. With 10 wickets from just 6 matches at a brilliant average of 18.20, Ishant played an important role in helping Delhi reach the final of the tournament.

He was quite miserly with the ball as well as he condeded his runs at a frugal economy rate of 3.54. Ishant Sharma’s consistent run in the tournament has brought him back to the limited-overs frame for Team India.

#8 Manish Pandey

MAT	RUNS	AVG	HS
6	212	53.00	94*

Manish Pandey is back into the Indian ODI team and the credit for this goes to his performance in the domestic season this year. Pandey had a pretty good run with the bat in the 2015/16 Vijay Hazare Trophy.

He managed to rack up 212 runs at a more than decent average of 53 and a strike rate of 80 plus. Pandey had a highest score of 94 not out in the tournament, which he scored against the eventual champions Gujarat.

#9 Bhuvaneshwar Kumar

MAT	WKTS	AVG	BBI
5	10	15.40	3/25

Bhuvaneshwar Kumar may not be a part of the Indian ODI team for the Australia tour but he did put up a good show in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. He was one of the stand-out performers for Uttar Pradesh with the ball and picked up 10 wickets in 5 games.

Bhuvaneshwar was highly economical too and gave away his runs at just 3.27 in the tournament. His best figures of 3 for 25 came in the quarter-finals but could not save his team from a loss to Tamil Nadu.

#10 Umesh Yadav

MAT	WKTS	AVG	BBI
4	9	9.88	3/16

Umesh Yadav may not have played too many matches in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, but he did manage to make an impression in the few that he played. Taking 9 wickets at an average of only 9.88 in 4 matches is as good as it can get in any level of cricket.

To add to it, Yadav also bowled with a miserly economy rate of 3.08, which was among the lowest recorded in the tournament. His top figures of 3 for 16 came in a group match against Andhra.