Jaffer to lead West Zone in Deodhar Trophy

Wasim Jaffer, the Mumbai opener, has been made the captain of the West Zone squad for the Deodhar Trophy with Parthiv Patel as his deputy.

Jaffer leads a strong West batting which includes six of the top nine run-getters of the Ranji season. Besides Jaffer and Parthiv, the side includes the prolific Mumbai batsman Ajinkya Rahane, Saurashtra's stars of the season, Ravindra Jadeja and Cheteshwar Pujara, Maharashtra's Kedar Jadhav, and Gujarat's Bhavik Thaker.

The bowling doesn't look as imposing on paper though, and is filled with youngsters none of whom have international experience.

West are in Group A along with North and Central. The league matches start on March 13 with the teams that top the two groups facing off in the final on March 18.

Squad: Wasim Jaffer (capt), Parthiv Patel (vice-capt & wk), Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhavik Thaker, Kedar Jadhav, Siddharth Trivedi, Abhishek Nayar, Rakesh Solanki, Iqbal Abdulla, Harshad Khadiwale, Murtuja Vahora, Jitendra Patil, Kamlesh Makwana