Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy winners list

Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy is India’s annual T20 competition that was introduced back in 2006-07 with the name “Inter-State T20 Championship”. Three years later, it was relaunched again as “Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy”.

In its first edition back in 2006-07, 27 teams competed for the T20 crown but as of 2022, 38 domestic teams that feature in the Ranji Trophy, also take part in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

As the years passed by, the BCCI experimented aplenty with the tournament’s format and even changed it to an inter-zonal event in 2016. However, it was reintroduced again in the old format with the domestic teams fighting for the trophy.

In the current format, 38 teams are been divided into six groups, one of which is a plate group involving eight teams whilst the other five will have six teams each. All the teams in the tournament will play five matches each, including the plate group.

Tamil Nadu are the most successful team in this tournament’s history, having won the championship three times. After winning the trophy in the first edition of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, they went on to win two more times, in 2018-19 and 2019-20, becoming the first team to defend their title.

Interestingly, the most decorated domestic team in Indian cricket, Mumbai, had not reached the finals until the 2022-23 edition. In the inaugural edition, current Indian captain Rohit Sharma represented the side as an 18-year-old and went on to score the first-ever T20 century by an Indian.

After a wait that lasted nearly two decades, Mumbai won the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy for the first time by defeating Himachal Pradesh in the final on November 5, 2022.

While Tamil Nadu won the tournament three times, Karnataka, Gujarat and Baroda won it two times each. Punjab won the 2023 edition of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and are currently the reigning champions.