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West Zone keen to keep the momentum going

Special Correspondent

North hopes to bounce back after the debacle against Central

— Photo: K.R. Deepak

PROMISING STAR: Virat Kohli (left) will be hoping to make his presence felt in the tie against West Zone.

VISAKHAPATNAM: North Zone takes on defending champion West Zone in the Prof. D.B. Deodhar Trophy league match at the ACA-VDCA Stadium here on Thursday.

West received a penalty point in its loss to Central but bounced back with a bonus point win over East and it would like to maintain the momentum, while the 11-time winner North — languishing at the bottom of the table after conceding a minus point in its loss to Central in the only match it has played so far — hopes to stage a comeback.

This is also the only match of the Deodhar Trophy in which those selected for the Indian team for the first Test against South Africa in Chennai from March 26 can play and the captains of North and West teams, Virender Sehwag and Wasim Jaffer, are here.

Sehwag is in good form though his team lost to Central while Jaffer, who is going through a lean patch will be looking to regain form.

Yuvraj opts out

Had Yuvraj Singh made it here North would have been strengthened further, but the team received a message that he would not be able to come. Sehwag along with Gautam Gambhir and Amit Mishra reached here on Wednesday.

North Zone manager Sushil Kapoor said the team was in good shape. It lost the first match but the positives were Sehwag’s blistering knock as well as Uday Kaul’s and Amit Mishra’s fine efforts. The team would be in with a great chance if the top order clicks.

Aakash Chopra and Gambhir are in good knick and a good performance would boost their chances of earning a recall to the Test squad. The batsman-friendly pitch at the ACA-VDCA stadium should be an advantage for the team, Sushil added.

Captain of the victorious Indian under-19 World Cup team Virat Kohli and his teammate Pradeep Sangwan will also be seen in action.

In focus

The onus will also be on West Zone’s Rohit Sharma, Yousuf Pathan, Parthiv Patel and Ajit Agarkar.

West Zone would play hard and try to win the game, said its manager Atul Bedade. Agarkar did only some stretching exercises at the nets. But Bedade declared that there were no injury problems.

The teams (from): North Zone: Virender Sehwag (capt.), Gautam Gambhir, Rajat Bhatia, Vishal Bhatia, Aakash Chopra, Shikhar Dhawan, Paras Dogra, Uday Kaul, Virat Kohli, Vikramjeet Malik, Amit Mishra, Pradeep Sangwan, Vikram Singh, Yashpal Singh and Manpreet Gony.

West Zone: Wasim Jaffer (capt.), Ajit Agarkar, Iqbal Abdulla, Kedar Jadhav, Y. Venugopala Rao, Sandip Maniar, Abhishek Nayar, Monish Parmar, Munaf Patel, Parthiv Patel, Yusuf Pathan, Ajinkya Rahane, Pinal Shah, Rohit Sharma and Siddharth Trivedi.

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