Kuldeep Yadav and other hopefuls will get a chance to show their mettle when Central Zone takes on South Zone in the quarterfinals of the Prof. D.B. Deodhar Trophy at the Wankhede Stadium here on Saturday. The inter-zonal knock-out is the last limited-overs tournament that will serve as a selection trial for next year’s World Cup.
Four days ago, >the Vijay Hazare Trophy tournament was completed with Karnataka winning the final against Punjab.
Uttar Pradesh had failed to qualify from Central Zone, and Yadav, who took three wickets at 46.33, missed the big stage in Gujarat. The young chinaman bowler, though, has impressed many, and the national selectors chose him for the ODIs against the West Indies.
While he did not get to bowl against the West Indies batsmen and was not picked for the series against Sri Lanka, there’s every possibility that he may be among the probables for the World Cup.
A good show against in-form South Zone batsmen like Robin Uthappa, Mayank Agarwal, Manish Pandey, Karun Nair, Baba Aparajith and Stuart Binny will help his cause.
Having been part of the Mumbai Indians, Yadav has a fair idea of the Wankhede pitch, which has never disappointed quality bowlers: pace or spin.
Also hoping to make a mark would be Baba Aparajith. He is the only Tamil Nadu player in the squad that is dominated by Karnataka players. Andhra’s left-arm seamer Cheepurapalli Stephen is another interesting selection; he took 11 wickets at 15.72 in the recent South Zone Subbiah Pillai Trophy.
“All of us performed well in the Vijay Hazare tournament. The players will get good exposure and a chance to perform here,” said South skipper Vinay Kumar.
Central skipper Piyush Chawla acknowledged that South is a good side. “Not long ago we beat them in the Duleep Trophy final. We have our chins up and look forward to a good game,” he said.
On Sunday North plays East in the first semifinal and on Monday West meets the winner of the South-Central match in the second semifinal.
The teams (from): South Zone: Vinay Kumar (captain), Robin Uthappa, Mayank Agarwal, Amit Yadav, Baba Aparajith, Ashish Reddy, Stuart Binny, Amogh Desai, Darshan Misal, Abhimanyu Mithun, Karun Nair, Manish Pandey, Sachin Baby, Sanju Samson, Cheepurapalli Stephen.
Central Zone: Piyush Chawla (captain), Akshdeep Nath, Anureet Singh, Ankush Bains, Swapnil Bandiwar, Mukul Dagar, Arjit Gupta, Abhishek Kaushik, Kuldeep Yadav, Ashok Menaria, Ishwar Pandey, Pankaj Singh, Mahesh Rawat, Jalaj Saxena, Jitesh Sharma.
