The fourth round of the 2025/26 Vijay Hazare Trophy got over on December 31, 2025. Here are the major talking points from Round 4 of the 2025/26 VHT.
1. India have an enviable ODI batting depth
The top-ranked ODI side in the world, India lost just one game across the last two global tournaments in the format. Since the start of 2023, their win-loss ratio (3.167) is more than twice of any Full Member side. Part of that is because of an incredible five-member unit of specialist batters.
Having retired from two formats, both Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma showed in 2025 that the decisions have not impacted their batting in ODIs. Kohli (twice) and Rohit (once) were magnificent in the Vijay Hazare Trophy; Shubman Gill and KL Rahul will feature in the tournament in January; while Iyer is still recuperating from his injury. When they got their chances, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad grabbed the opportunities with both hands, hitting a hundred apiece against South Africa.
With seven batters sorted, it is virtually impossible for someone to break through. They have little option but to keep scoring heavily in the VHT and hope. So Dhruv Shorey equalled the world record of five consecutive List A hundreds. Devdutt Padikkal has three hundreds in four games to stretch his career average to a scarcely believable 82.56. And across four innings, Rinku Singh is yet to be dismissed for under 63.
With the selectors once again keen on Ishan Kishan, none of them is close to the ODI squad at this point. They have little option but to keep hammering away.
2. Sarfaraz, Jurel send potentially futile reminders
If his current form – especially in the two limited-overs formats – is anything to go by, Sarfaraz Khan has been making a strong case for himself. After his most recent innings (a 75-ball 157), R Ashwin emphasised on the value of Sarfaraz, highlighting how he “murders spin in the middle overs with his sweeps and slog sweeps”.
Will all this help him earn a spot in the ODI or T20I sides? Possibly not. However, there has been no clear update on exactly why he fell out of favour with the Indian team management for a place in the Test XI: these will certainly boost his cause.
It is perhaps apt to bracket Sarfaraz with Dhruv Jurel, his competitor for a spot in the Test middle order even if Rishabh Pant plays. Yet to play an ODI, Jurel finally got that maiden List A hundred, a violent innings against Baroda. Already India’s second-choice wicketkeeper in Tests, Jurel would want to cement that spot in ODIs and keep Rahul on his toes.
3. Are the pitches too batting-friendly?
From high team totals to most sixes to fast fifties and hundreds, every round of the Vijay Hazare Trophy seems to throw up one batting record or another. If the bowlers get a mention, it is about most runs conceded in a spell (Mibom Mosu broke the world record this season before Aman Khan displaced him).
While these can happen in a tournament with 38 teams with varying differences in skillsets, one cannot help but raise a question: if these records are products of mismatches (quite a few of them are not), why have there not been standout bowling feats at comparable frequency?
Let us have some perspective: across 76 games so far, there have been 40 team totals in excess of 300; of these, 17 have been of 350 or more including five 400-plus totals (including the game where Karnataka chased 413 in 47.3 overs to beat Jharkhand).
The number of two-digit all-out totals? Two.
4. Why are there so few close contests?
Contrary to belief, the "weak teams" are seldom pitted against the "legacy teams" in the VHT: they are pooled together in the Plate Group. The 32 Elite Group teams can boast of some legacy.
So where are the humdingers? Across 76 games, only three have been decided by a margin of fewer than 10 runs (and none for fewer than seven). Only four chases went into the final overs: exclude these, and there has been no instance of a side winning by fewer than two wickets.
Contrast this with the 25 wins by margins of 50 or more runs and the 18 chases completed inside 40 overs, and you would realise that this has not been a tournament of close games.
5. The Bengal pace trio
The Bengal attack boasts of three international fast bowlers, none of whom – as on New Year’s Day, 2026 – is a certain starter in any of the formats in the Indian side or even any IPL side. In domestic cricket, however, it is difficult to come across a more formidable trinity. Between them, they have already shared 22 of Bengal’s 30 wickets this season.
Never did their pace attack come into greater focus than their recent game, against Jammu & Kashmir. After Mohammed Shami (2-14) reduced them to 6-3, Akash Deep (4-32) and Mukesh Kumar (4-16) shot out J&K for 63 in 20.4 overs – exceptional, given how infrequent these low scores have been. Bengal did not need a fourth bowler.
6. A word on Krunal Pandya
India’s 2023 World Cup campaign was rocked when Axar Patel was ruled out before and Hardik Pandya during the tournament. With no batters who bowled regularly, they had to gamble on picking only Ravindra Jadeja and a long tail.
Washington Sundar has been part of the fray since then to make it a pool of four all-rounders, but what happens in case of another injury spree? Of the several options, Pandya Sr has had a run of 54 and 3-39, 82, and 109 not out in his last three games. While his last ODI came in 2021, Pandya has quietly put up a solid body of work in the List A format, averaging 39.06 with the bat and picking up 115 wickets from 95 matches at an economy rate of 4.94.
He will be 36 by the time the next World Cup comes, but Jadeja will be nearly 39...
