The Ranji Trophy is known for being the most prestigious first-class cricket competition of India. In 1993-94, a Ranji One Day Trophy was introduced for a List A competition that followed the One Day International format. Between 1983 to 2006, the U-19 national zonal competition was called the Vijay Hazare Trophy. From 2007, the Ranji One Day Trophy was replaced by the name Vijay Hazare Trophy to honor the first Indian captain who won a test match.
Being a zonal competition, the Vijay Hazare Trophy did not have one definite winner till 2001. Till this time period, a winner was declared for each event. It was only from the 2002 season, that a league stage followed by a knockout format was introduced. 28 teams across five zones competed till the 2014 season. In the 2015-2017 season, the tournament had seven teams each in four zones.
Another change in the format was witnessed in 2018-19 when the Vijay Hazare Trophy tried to mimic the Ranji Trophy format by introducing three elite and a plate group. A total of 38 teams were now a part of the mix and were destined to follow a promotion-relegation format based on their performance in the previous three editions of the tournament.
Such fluctuations in the format continued, and as of 2024-25, the participating teams are now divided into five groups instead of zones. These groups are named from A to E, and the teams are allotted to each group based on the points table from the previous season. During the grouping, the preference for categorization was given to the winner, runner-up, semi-finalists, quarterfinalists, and two pre-quarterfinalists based on their points, wins, and net run-rate. The remaining teams are ranked and grouped based on their performance in the last season.
Each team in the group plays the other in a round-robin format. A win is worth four points, two points are given to each team for a match that is tied or no result, and no points are given for a loss. The group toppers from each side, and the best performing team positioned second across all groups directly qualify for the quarterfinals. The next four best teams across all groups qualify for the pre-quarterfinals. The knockout stages then follow to decide the winner.
As of 2024-25, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are the most successful teams with five titles each. As of March 2025, Ankit Bawne leads the run-count in the Vijay Hazare Trophy with over 4000 runs to his name. Siddharth Kaul is the leading wicket-taker with 155 wickets.
