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Central keen on a winning start

Principal Correspondent

West’s coach allays fears over injury concerns

Bangalore: On the eve of the Prof. D.B. Deodhar Trophy match between Central Zone and West Zone, the Chinnaswamy Stadium hardly looked like a venue for a crucial domestic match.

An ad shoot for the Royal Challengers Bangalore team was on in full steam and a lot of shooting paraphernalia was strewn all over the place. To add to the confusion, the match, earlier stated to be a day-and-night outing has now been made a regular day match. Hopefully cricket will take its rightful place on Friday.

Known names

Defending champion West Zone led by Wasim Jaffer does have a clutch of known names in Rohit Sharma, Ajit Agarkar, Munaf Patel, Parthiv Patel, Venugopala Rao and Yusuf Pathan.

Jaffer, besides leading the side, also needs to address a few concerns over his form that dipped in Australia besides the odd query over his presence in the Royal Challengers team in IPL’s Twenty20 format. “I want to score runs in the Deodhar Trophy and carry on the momentum,” Jaffer said.

Meanwhile West’s coach Surendra Bhave allayed fears over injury concerns with Agarkar and Munaf.

“Munaf worked up some pace in the nets and looked keen on the field. Ajit has already played one-dayers in Pune and he is fit,” Bhave said.

For challenger Central, it is all about giving the campaign a winning start. “Last year, we did not have a good start and we were playing catch-up. This time around we want to start well,” said Central skipper Mohammad Kaif.

R.P. Singh optimistic

The selectors’ eyes meanwhile will also be on Central’s R.P. Singh as the left-arm seamer is coming back from a right hamstring injury.

R.P. Singh, who is in his rehabilitation stints at the National Cricket Academy, has struck an optimistic note and is hopeful of finding his name in the Indian squad for the three Tests against South Africa. The team will be announced here on March 17.

Besides Kaif and R.P. Singh, Central has the latest star in Indian cricket – seamer Praveen Kumar along with Suresh Raina, Piyush Chawla and Murali Kartik.

The teams:

Central Zone: Md. Kaif (captain), Murali Kartik, S. Raina, Praveen Kumar, Piyush Chawla, Tanmay Srivastava, Faiz Fazal, Praveen Gupta, Sandeep Singh, R.P. Singh, Deepak Yadav, Naman Ojha (wicket-keeper), Himalaya Sagar, Ravi Jangid and Rajesh Kanojia. Coach: Abhay Sharma; Physio: Vybhav Daga; Manager: Gyanendra Pandey.

West Zone: Wasim Jaffer (captain), Ajit Agarkar (vice-captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Parthiv Patel (wicket-keeper), Venugopala Rao, Rohit Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Abhishek Nayar, Mohnish Parmar, Iqbal Abdulla, Munaf Patel, Sandip Maniar, Siddharth Trivedi, Kedar Jadhav and Pinal Shah. Coach: Surendra Bhave; Manager: Atul Bedade.