Toss Karnataka chose to bowl v Tamil Nadu
In a final pitting two star-studded sides against each other, Karnataka opted to bowl first against Tamil Nadu on an overcast day, sticking to the template that has seen them win their last five matches in the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2019-20.
Manish Pandey had no hesitation in opting to stick Tamil Nadu in when the coin fell in his favour. Dinesh Karthik, the Tamil Nadu captain, said he would have bowled first as well.
Karnataka made one change to the side that swept aside Chhattisgarh in the semi-finals, handing a List A debut to left-arm pacer Prateek Jain and leaving out Ronit More.
Tamil Nadu, who won a nervy contest against Gujarat in their semi-final, opted to keep their side unchanged.
Among recently capped international players in action, Tamil Nadu have R Ashwin, Vijay Shankar, M Vijay and Washington Sundar besides Karthik. Karnataka have KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal and Karun Nair, alongwith Pandey.
Karnataka are three-time winners of the trophy, while Tamil Nadu have won it five times. Karnataka have the more recent triumph, lifting the title in 2017-18. Neither team has lost a final in the Vijay Hazare Trophy yet, which is likely to change today, unless the match is abandoned - in which case the trophy will be shared.
Karnataka XI: KL Rahul (wk), Devdutt Padikkal, Mayank Agarwal, Manish Pandey (capt), Karun Nair, Rohan Kadam, Praveen Dubey, K Gowtham, Abhimanyu Mithun, Prateek Jain, V Koushik.
Tamil Nadu XI: Abhinav Mukund, M Vijay, B Aparajith, Dinesh Karthik (capt, wk), Vijay Shankar, Washington Sundar, Shahrukh Khan, R Ashwin, M Mohammed, M Ashwin, T Natarajan