Badrinath appointed South Zone captain

S Badrinath, the Tamil Nadu batsman, has been appointed captain of the South Zone side for the Deodhar Trophy, and Robin Uthappa, the Karnataka opener, has been made his deputy.

The pair are the only members of a youthful 15-man squad who have international experience. South are missing six big names from the side that represented them in the Duleep Trophy; the batting will have to do without Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, M Vijay and Dinesh Karthik who are all part of the Test side for the New Zealand series. There is no L Balaji or Sreesanth to bolster the bowling either.

The squad will be coached by former India left-arm spinner Raghuram Bhat. Former India and Karnataka batsman Sudhakar Rao will manage the side.

South Zone are in Group B along with North Zone and a Zimbabwe President's XI. The league matches start on March 13 with the teams that top the two groups facing off in the final on March 18.

Squad: S Badrinath (capt), Robin Uthappa (vice-capt), Srikkanth Anirudha, DB Ravi Teja, Arjun Yadav, Manoj Sai, R Ashwin, KP Appanna, Shoaib Ahmed, S Aravind, Yo Mahesh, Robin D'Souza, P Prasanth, Arun Karthik, Anoop Pai