RCB sign Zol, Appanna, Syed Mohammad

Maharashtra teenager Vijay Zol, who recently hit the headlines for scoring an unbeaten 451 in the Under-19 Cooch Behar Trophy, is one of five Indian youngsters signed up by Royal Challengers Bangalore for the upcoming IPL season.

"I was told that Anil Kumble sir had seen me play during the domestic season and he had asked for my number after the match," Zol told the Times of India. "It was during the knockout stages of the Cooch Behar tournament that I got a call from the RCB officials. They asked me to come down to Bangalore and play a few matches for the team.

"Playing for RCB in the IPL is huge, and getting an opportunity to just be around players like Anil Kumble sir, Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle and Daniel Vettori is even bigger. But my ultimate dream, like any other player in the IPL, is to don the national colours."

The Royal Challengers had seven vacancies in their squad including one overseas player after the player auctions on February 4. Apart from Zol, they also included left-arm spinners KP Appanna and J Syed Mohammad who played for them in prior seasons. Appanna was part of the Royal Challengers set-up in the first three years of the IPL, before missing out in the 2011 edition. He forced his way back into the reckoning with a haul of 28 wickets in the recently-concluded Ranji Trophy season, where he was the joint fourth-highest wicket taker. Syed Mohammad had an impressive debut IPL season in 2011, when he joined the side as a replacement midway through the tournament.

The two other slots went to allrounders Karun Nair from Karnataka and S Thiagarajan from Tamil Nadu.