Deodhar Trophy poised to kick off at Chennai, Hyderabad

The 2003 edition of the Deodhar Trophy kicks off on January 3, with West Zone and East Zone facing off in Chennai, while South Zone and Central Zone take the field at Hyderabad.

West Zone, led by Hrishikesh Kanitkar, boast a potentially explosive batting line-up, but the likes of Vinayak Mane will only be helped by the steady batting of Connor Williams and Abhijit Kale at the other end. Figuring importantly in their plans will be Mumbai leggie Sairaj Bahutule, both for his abilities with the ball as well as his batting skills lower down the order.

East Zone, however, are no pushovers. Led by Bengal skipper Rohan Gavaskar, they seem solid rather than flashy. Steady bats like Shiv Sunder Das and Sanjay Raul are complemented nicely by the experienced Utpal Chatterjee and Debashish Mohanty.

West Zone Squad: HH Kanitkar (captain), SV Bahutule, NA Godbole, CC Williams, VR Mane, AV Kale, KD Damani, SK Trivedi, IK Pathan, JP Jobanputra, RF Morris, RR Powar, AA Merchant, MP Mewada, RV Dhurv

East Zone Squad: RS Gavaskar (captain), DS Mohanty, U Chatterjee, SS Das, SG Das, PM Mullick, SD Chowdhury, MS Dhoni, Javed Zaman, DJ Gandhi, PR Mohapatra, RR Parida, SS Raul, AA Ranade