Bangalore: The spotlight will be on India players Mayank Agarwal, R Ashwin and KL Rahul when the evenly-matched Karnataka and Tamil Nadu lock horns in the title clash of the Vijay Hazare Trophy here on Friday. The Manish Pandey-led Karnataka were convincing in their victories in the knockout games but Tamil Nadu, who dominated the league phase, were a tad lucky as the rain rule allowed them to go past Punjab in the quarterfinals before young M Shahrukh Khan guided them home in the semifinal against Gujarat.

The two sides are equally matched, with a formidable batting line-up and a set of quality bowlers, though the presence of R Ashwin gives the TN attack more experience and variety. The Friday's clash will be decided by how the two bowling attacks perform given that both teams have a lot of depth in batting. The home side has been well served by out-of-favour Test opener K L Rahul (546 runs in 10 games), who has come into his own in the quarterfinals and semis and his opening partner Devdutt Padikkal (598 runs from 10 matches).