R P Singh, Jaffer come under scanner in Deodhar tie

Bangalore, Mar 13 (UNI) UP speedster R P Singh and Mumbai opener Wasim Jaffer will come under the scanner in the inter-zonal Deodhar Trophy one-day league tie between reigning champions West Zone and Central zone to be played at the KSCA stadium here tomorrow.

Their performance will be watched keenly by the national selectors who had postponed the team selection for the three-test home series against South Africa from March 26.

The selection committee Chairman Dilip Vengsarkar had sought postponement of the team selection, from March 9 to 17, to witness some of the players perform in the Deodhar Trophy matches.

R P Singh, who plays for Central zone, has recovered from a hamstring injury and underwent a fitness test at NCA here. Jaffer, who is leading the West Zone, will have to prove his form as his performance in the just concluded test series down under was disappointing.

Vengsarkar had earlier said the players who returned immediately after the Test series in Australia will have to play in the domestic tournaments and prove their fitness and form.

Speedster Munaf Patel would also get a chance to impress the selectors in his bid to regain his berth in the test side.

The other players who would be watched with interest in view of the Test series would be Central skipper Mohammed Kaif and Railways left arm spinner Murali Karthik.

Following are the teams: West Zone: Wasim Jaffer (Capt), Ajit Agarkar, Ajinkya Rahane, Parthiv Patel (WK), Venugopal Rao, Rohit Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Abhishek Nayar, Mohnish Parmar, Iqbal Abdulla, Munaf Patel, Sandip Maniar, Siddharth Trivedi, Kedar Jadhav and Pinal Shah.

Coach: Surendra Bhave.

Central Zone: Mohammed Kaif (Capt), Murali Kartik (Vice-capt), Suresh Raina, Praveen Kumar, Piyush Chawla, Tanmay Srivatsava, Faiz Fazal, Praveen Gupta, Sandeep Singh, R P Singh, Deepak Yadav, Naman Ojha (wk), Himalaya Sagar, Ravi Jangid and Rajesh Kanojia.

Coach: Abhay Sharma.

Hours of play: 0900 hrs to 1230 hrs and 13.15 hrs to 1645 hrs.

UNI RS MSP CS RN1754