Fastest, youngest, biggest - a Vijay Hazare Trophy season for the history books

108 - The number of individual hundreds scored across 112 matches played in the six rounds of the 2025-26 Vijay Hazare Trophy so far. There is only one previous List A series or tournament with 100 or more centuries - 103 in the 2022-23 edition. Sixteen group games remain to be played in this tournament, followed by seven knockout matches.

The Vijay Hazare Trophy has hosted four of the five List A tournaments with 80 or more hundreds. The ODI World Cup Super League is the other one: 93 hundreds were scored across 143 ODIs played as part of the Super League between 2020 and 2022-23.

The sheer number of matches in every edition of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, since the number of teams increased to 38 at the start of the 2018-19 season, is a significant reason. However, that alone doesn't make up for the batting levels witnessed in the ongoing tournament.

The ratio of centuries-per-match in the 2025-26 edition is 0.96, the best for any List A tournament in the past 20 years with 30 or more matches. The next highest is 0.88, for the Pakistan Cup in 2020-21, when 29 hundreds were scored across 33 games.

22 Hundreds were scored on the opening day of the tournament, on December 24. These are the most in a single day in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. The earlier record was 19 apiece on December 12, 2021 and January 3, 2025. That figure was matched twice more in this edition, with 21 centuries on the eve of 2026 and 19 on January 3.

The 108 hundreds so far have been scored by 83 players from 35 teams. Karnataka and Vidarbha batters have scored the most with seven apiece. Devdutt Padikkal of Karnataka and Aman Mokhade of Vidarbha have scored four each. Pukhraj Mann of Himachal Pradesh has three, while 19 other batters have two.

Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Sikkim are the only teams without a century-maker so far. Sikkim nearly had their first on Tuesday, with Kranthi Kumar scoring 95 in a 33-over game. He retired with a ball remaining after being stranded at the non-striker's end.

The highest individual score for Tamil Nadu after six matches is 73, while for Puducherry, it is 68. On the flip side, Chandigarh and Hyderabad have conceded the most, six each, while no batter has managed to score a hundred against Bihar or Manipur.

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's age on the opening day of the tournament was 14 years and 272 days, and he struck 190 against Arunachal Pradesh, the first hundred of the tournament. That made him the youngest man to score a List A hundred. Zahoor Elahi was the previous youngest, at 15 years and 209 days in 1986.

A week later, Vikalp Tiwari of Chhattisgarh scored his maiden List A century against Sikkim, at the age of 16 years and 98 days. That made him the second-youngest Indian and sixth-youngest overall to score a hundred in men's List A cricket.

Ambati Rayudu previously held the Indian record, aged 16 years and 107 days, when he scored a century on his List A debut in 2002. Rayudu was ranked fifth on the overall list but is now seventh. He, however, still holds the world record for being the youngest List A debutant to score a hundred.

Anmolpreet Singh's 35-ball hundred in the 2024-25 season broke Yusuf Pathan's long-standing record for the fastest List A hundred by an Indian, off 40 balls. Yusuf's mark was surpassed three more times within half a day of the 2025-26 Vijay Hazare Trophy, including two coming quicker than Anmolpreet's.

Sooryavanshi began the day with a 36-ball hundred, before his team-mate Sakibul Gani broke the Indian record with a 32-baller - the third-fastest in List A history. Moments later, Ishan Kishan raced to a 33-ball hundred against Karnataka, the fourth-quickest ever.

The intensity of those hundreds was such that Ayush Loharuka's 52-ball century was the third-fastest in Bihar's innings that day. Loharuka's hundred, however, was the second-fastest by a List A debutant, behind Ayana Siriwardhana's 48-ball ton in 2019.

Five more hundreds were scored in less than 60 balls after the opening day, all coming in the Elite Groups. As many as 65 of the 108 hundreds came in 100 or fewer balls, while only five took 120 or more balls.

Sooryavanshi, in the Arunachal Pradesh game, brought up his 150 from just 59 balls, five balls clear of the world record held by AB de Villiers. A week later, Sarfaraz Khan hit 150 from just 72 balls against Goa, the sixth-fastest ever.

The Indian record was previously held by Dinesh Karthik, who got to the mark off 80 balls against Hyderabad in 2011. Vishnu Vinod nearly matched that on Tuesday, when he brought up his 150 in just 81 balls against Puducherry.

The year ended with a List A record being broken: five centurions in a game between Baroda and Hyderabad in Rajkot. It was the first instance of five batters scoring centuries in a match, in a format that has seen more than 32,000 games over 63 years.

Each of Baroda's top three - Nitya Pandya, Amit Pasi and Krunal Pandya scored hundreds, while Hyderabad's Abhirath Reddy and Pragnay Reddy did the same in an unsuccessful chase. Four of the five hadn't scored a List A hundred before this match. Nitya was making his List A debut, while Pasi was playing only his second, and both Abhirath and Pragnay were yet to score a century previously.

Before the 2025-26 season, no team had three century-makers in a Vijay Hazare Trophy match, but that has already happened twice. Bihar's Sooryavanshi, Loharuka and Gani against Arunachal Pradesh were the first.

Every fourth fifty-plus score was a hundred in this Vijay Hazare Trophy. Still, only one in every nine centuries became a 150-plus score, as only 12 such scores have been recorded so far, despite a century being scored every game on average.

The first of those was the 190 by Sooryavanshi, who also became the youngest to score 150 in List A cricket, having already become the youngest century-maker.

Hours later on the very same day, Rohit Sharma scored 155 against Sikkim to become the second-oldest player to score a hundred in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and the third-oldest man ever to score a 150 in List A cricket, after Viv Richards and Chris Gayle.

Two players went on to score a double, each unique in its own way. Odisha's Swastik Samal was the first, scoring 212 against Saurashtra, the first 150-plus score in List A cricket for Odisha. Samal, however, became only the second List A double-century-maker to end up on the losing side, after Ben Dunk, who scored 229 not out for Tasmania in 2014 against Queensland.

Hyderabad's Aman Rao scored an unbeaten 200 against Bengal, reaching the milestone on the last ball of the innings with a six. Before him, only one batter had reached a double on the last ball of the innings - Phillip Hughes in 2014; he also hit a last-ball six while batting on 196 against South Africa A.

The high number of hundreds being scored year after year in the Vijay Hazare Trophy has meant that Indians have been setting new records in List A cricket. Mayank Agarwal, on Tuesday, scored his 20th in List A cricket, taking only 129 innings. That put him level with Khurram Manzoor's record for the fastest to 20 List A hundreds.

Agarwal's opening partner, Padikkal, fell short of his 14th List A century by nine runs, but each of his four hundreds this season have been records: he is now the fastest to score nine, ten, 11, 12 and 13 hundreds in men's List A cricket.

Padikkal has his sights set on claiming the record for being the fastest to consecutive hundreds, a record currently held by Ruturaj Gaikwad (14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19). Gaikwad scored his 19th century on New Year's Eve. The three are chasing Ankit Bawne's record of 15 hundreds in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Gaikwad has 14 of them, while the Karnataka openers have 13 apiece.

Earlier in the tournament, Dhruv Shorey brought up his fifth successive hundred in List A cricket, carrying forward his three consecutive centuries from the previous edition.

The only batter with this feat before him was N Jagadeesan, also in the Vijay Hazare Trophy in the 2022-23 edition. Two years before that, Padikkal had four hundreds on the trot in this competition, equalling the then List A record, jointly held by Kumar Sangakkara and Alviro Petersen.

As many as 44 players scored their first hundreds in List A cricket this season, and nine of them added at least one more to their tally.

The double-century-makers in the tournament, Samal and Rao, also scored their maiden centuries. Only five men before them had converted their maiden List A centuries into doubles. Rao's knock came in only his third List A game, the same as Graeme Pollock, while Alan Barrow scored 202 not out in his debut match.

Four players scored hundreds in their debut games - Loharuka, Sammar Gajjar, Harnoor Singh and Nitya Pandya. In contrast, Swapnil Singh scored his first nearly 18 years after his List A debut. Swapnil, who made his debut in the format in March 2008 as a bowling allrounder, played 72 matches in the interim.

Like Swapnil, two other Indian allrounders made a memorable start to 2026 on Saturday. Axar Patel scored his maiden hundred in his 171st game, having made his debut back in February 2012. Hardik Pandya, too, ended his nine-year drought. He brought up his hundred in style - hitting five successive sixes and a four, all in one over off Parth Rekhade.

Kunal Chandela and Lalit Yadav also scored their maiden centuries, nearly seven years after their debuts in February 2018, while six others, who scored their maiden List A hundreds this season, debuted well before 2020 in the format.

Virat Kohli, who returned to the Vijay Hazare Trophy after a hiatus of 15 years, became the second-oldest century-maker, behind Rohit. Two other batters aged 35 or more also scored hundreds, while four batters in the tournament are yet to turn 20.