Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (India) 2025/26

Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy is India's premier domestic Twenty20 cricket tournament, organized by the Board of Control for Cricket in India. The competition was established for the 2006–07 season and originally operated under the name Inter-State T20 Championship until a renaming in 2015–16. It honours Syed Mushtaq Ali, a former Indian cricketer, and stands as the top-tier domestic T20 event within the Indian cricket pyramid.

The tournament features 38 teams, corresponding to the state and regional associations that participate in first-class cricket. The current format divides teams into five Elite groups (A–E) of seven to eight teams each. Participants play a round-robin schedule within their groups, with the winner of each Elite group and the best second-placed team advancing to the quarter-finals. This structure replaces previous experiments involving separate Plate groups for lower-ranked teams, creating a unified competitive field for the recent 2024–25 season.

Mumbai holds the current title, having defeated Madhya Pradesh by five wickets in the final on December 15, 2024. Historically, Tamil Nadu stands as the most successful team with three titles, won in 2006–07, 2020–21, and 2021–22. Other multiple winners include Mumbai, Karnataka, Gujarat, and Baroda, each claiming two championships. The competition serves as a critical platform for player selection for national T20 squads.

Recent records include Tilak Varma's highest individual score of 151 not out during the 2024–25 season and Baroda's world-record team total of 349/5 against Sikkim in the same campaign. While other domestic tournaments focus on List A formats or zonal teams, the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy remains exclusively dedicated to T20 cricket with a state-based team structure.