Vijay Hazare Trophy 2019: 3 teams that can win the competition

The Vijay Hazare Trophy, India's premier domestic 50-over competition will be the first limited-overs tournament this season in which players across the country will represent their respective states.

The 2019 edition started on the 24th of September and is slated to go on for a month until the grand finale, which is scheduled to take place on the 25th of October.

This season, the 38 teams in the competition have been divided into 4 groups. While the Elite teams will be part of group A and B, the lower division teams have been placed in Group C and D.

The format for qualification to the knockout stages of the tournament will be different in this edition. Only the winner of Group D will progress to the next stage while the top 2 teams in Group C will enter the quarterfinals. Considering both Group A and B together, the top 5 teams with the highest number of points will qualify, thereby filling the 8 quarterfinal spots.

Mumbai won the title last year, courtesy the performances of Prithvi Shaw, Shreyas Iyer and Ajinkya Rahane. Prithvi and Ajinkya will not play for Mumbai this edition and considering the squads of all other teams that have been announced for the tournament, here are 3 sides that look the most likely to lift the trophy.

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#3 Tamil Nadu

Dinesh Karthik will lead the Tamil Nadu side

After winning the Vijay Hazare Trophy three seasons ago, Tamil Nadu, the most successful side in the history of the tournament will look to add yet another trophy to its cabinet in this edition and start their domestic season on a high.

They have a good team in place comprising a mix of India hopefuls, good performers in the Tamil Nadu Premier League and Ranji Trophy regulars.

The side will be led by Dinesh Karthik, who will have a point to prove at the fag end of his career while Vijay Shankar and Washington Sundar are the other players in the Indian setup who will don the Tamil Nadu jersey.

Last season's highest run-getter, Abhinav Mukund will yet again open the innings for Tamil Nadu while N Jagadeesan and TNPL hero, Hari Nishanth will be the other players who will take care of this strong batting line-up.

Consistent performer, Baba Aparajith is likely to be given the responsibility to anchor the innings for his team.

The team has a varied bowling attack with T Natarajan and K Vignesh who are likely to be a part of the playing XI. Murugan Ashwin will lead the spin-bowling attack and will be joined by Sai Kishore in this department.

Overall, this team looks balanced and they would hope to do well.

Also See - Vijay Hazare Schedule 2019

#2 Punjab

Shubman Gill has been selected for the Punjab team

Punjab has been the perennially underachieving team in the Indian domestic circuit. However, the current team could set it right this season with a good show in the upcoming Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Despite being selected for the Indian Test team, Shubman Gill could turn up for Punjab in the tournament, especially if he isn't a part of the Indian playing eleven.

Apart from the talented 20-year-old, Punjab boast an impressive batting line-up with the likes of Mandeep Singh and Gurkeerat Singh Mann an integral part of the top-order. Both these players have also been given the additional responsibility as the captain and the vice-captain of this squad respectively.

While talented opener Anmolpreet Singh will be an important part of Punjab's campaign this edition, highly-rated teenager Prabhsimran Singh will keep wickets in the tournament.

The team has a good all-rounder in Abhishek Sharma who will assist the strong bowling attack comprising of Siddharth Kaul, Mayank Markhande and Sandeep Sharma.

Punjab is a young team with huge potential. And, if they can stick to their basics in the upcoming tournament, success could follow them this season.

#1 Karnataka

Manish Pandey and KL Rahul will play for Karnataka this season

Karnataka will be without three of their stalwarts, namely Vinay Kumar, Stuart Binny and CM Gautam for the upcoming season, all of whom have migrated to different states. Hence, the onus will be on the other experienced players in this team.

Manish Pandey will lead them this edition while KL Rahul, who was dropped from the Indian Test team, will also represent the state.

While the batting line-up already looks strong with KL and Manish, the presence of talented youngsters such as Devdutt Padikkal and KV Siddharth will make this line-up one of the best in the tournament.

Karnataka has a strong lower middle-order with Indian Premier League stars K Gowtham and Shreyas Gopal serving as the all-rounders in this team. Pavan Deshpande and Praveen Dubey can also do a bit of both if required and will offer balance to the team.

Led by Abhimanyu Mithun, the team's bowling attack looks decent with Ronit More and Prasidh Krishna having been in good form lately.

The potential return of Karun Nair after his India A commitments would further strengthen this team as the tournament progresses.