The bitter truth about once-in-a-generation teams is that they are built around a trusted nuclei. The downside to this: Take one piece out and they are suddenly not that effective – the sum of the parts make up the whole. This has been the case with Gujarat this year, which has been punctuated with brilliant individual displays.

Opener Priyank Panchal, though, has been a cut above the rest, and currently stands only 145 runs behind VVS Laxman all-time seasonal record; the Indian legend amassed 1415 runs in the 1999-’00 season.

Gujarat recently came to know that one of their bowling lynchpins, pacer Jasprit Bumrah would not be a part of the summit event after being called up by India for the limited-overs games against England. The 22-year-old pacer delivered a Player-of-the-Match display with his stunning 6/29 in the second innings in the semi-final against Jharkhand.

Bumrah took a six-for in the group-stage encounter between the sides too and had forged a solid new-ball partnership with veteran RP Singh. Now, Gujarat’s best chance to taking the game to Mumbai lies in scoring big runs. Panchal frustrated Mumbai in the aforementioned group game too, slamming 232.

Forty-one time champions Mumbai have no such worries, atleast by the way they have managed their resources despite losing some of their main men. Despite missing Akhil Herwadkar, their second highest run scorer from last year, they have shored up admirably – it is the hallmark of a great team.

Perhaps, that is how Mumbai have managed to stay at the top through all these decades. Just when one thinks they have lost a couple of quality players, a new one slots in seamlessly into their winning fabric.

A testament to Mumbai’s peerless strength in school cricket reflected in the manner in which 17-year-old Prithvi Shaw set up his side’s win against Tamil Nadu in the semi-final.

The prolific Shreyas Iyer and Suryakumar Yadav have quietly gone about with their task, and have impressive numbers too, although the latter’s recent form has not matched up to his displays in the early part of the season.

What should worry Gujarat more is the manner in which Mumbai can counter-attack from difficult situations. In the first innings of semis, the defending champions were in trouble at 128/4. Not many sides can post 411 from there, with their tail-enders causing maximum damage.

Herwadkar is fit to play the final and may well replace Praful Waghela. Gujarat also had some injury worries to attend to with left-armer Rush Kalaria unable to bowl or bat in the second innings against Jharkhand.

Yet another pattern about a great core that does not involve Mumbai is that there is no saying when they would go on to create an opportunity like Gujarat have this year. It took them 66 long years to get to this stage.

Recent history tell us that Mumbai reserve their best for the final. Hapless Saurashtra got a taste of it last year, crashing to a defeat by a whopping innings and 21 runs. India’s most successful domestic side have won each one of their last nine finals, further explaining how Mumbai have managed to chug on their championship-winning gravy train with each passing season.

Panchal and the Samit Gohel, who created a record against Odisha, have everything riding on their young shoulders.

Key Battles

Shardul Thakur vs Priyank Panchal

The Mumbai pacer has had an underwhelming campaign of sorts. On more than one occasion, it was Thakur’s batting that came to his side’s rescue. He also went wicket-less against Gujarat in the round-robin stage.

With so much riding on Panchal coming up with another three-figure score, it is crucial that Thakur replicates his performance in the semis. Thakur has good support in the tenacious Balwinder Sandhu and Abhishek Nayar.

Shreyas Iyer vs RP Singh

The hard-hitting Iyer’s best effort in this season has come against Gujarat, where he scored 194. The Mumbai batter scores his runs at a rapid pace and has the ability to change the contest in the matter of a couple of hours.

This is where Gujarat need their best bowling weapon in RP Singh. There is a good chance that the old warhorse would be asked to deliver longer spells in Indore. Gujarat can ill-afford to let Iyer settle in.

Match Facts

Venue: Holkar Stadium, Indore

Capacity: 30,000

Time: 9 am IST from 10th January

Last meeting: November 21-24, 2016, Match drawn at Hubbali

Likely XI:

Mumbai: Aditya Tare (c/w), Praful Waghela, Prithvi Shaw, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Abhishek Nayar, Siddesh Lad, Tushar Deshpande, Vijay Gohil, Shardul Thakur, Balwinder Sandhu

Gujarat: Parthiv Patel (c/w), Samit Gohel, Priyank Panchal, Bharghav Merai, Manprit Juneja, Rujul Bhatt, Chirag Gandhi, Rush Kalaria, RP Singh, Mehul Patel, Hardik Patel