Star-studded North Zone, comprising four members of the 2011 World Cup winning squad including captain Harbhajan Singh, start odds-on favourites in the T20 Inter Zonal league for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy commencing at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday.
The North side has explosive batsmen in Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Shikhar Dhawan and Rishabh Pant, and wily bowlers such as Harbhajan, who missed the entire first-class domestic season, the ageless Ashish Nehra and leggie Yuzvendra Chahal.
North, thus, appears to be the side to beat in the five-team inter zonal round-robin league that ends on February 18.
Led by Harbhajan, North have the right balance in all departments as they take on South Zone in the second match on day one starting at 1:30 pm following the tournament opener commencing at 9:30 am between hosts West Zone, to be led by wicket keeper Parthiv Patel, and the Suresh Raina-led Central. The fifth team is East, led by Bengal captain Manoj Tiwary, who are to play their first game on February 13 against Central.
That the tournament comes ahead of the February 20 IPL auction at Bengaluru was noted by West coach and former Saurashtra batsman Sitanshu Kotak.
"It's perfect timing, just before IPL auction on the 20th because T20 zonals have finished everywhere. It's perfect timing for players who want to prove themselves and whoever does well will have bright opportunities with franchises during IPL auction.
On Wridhiman Saha being chosen ahead of him in the ongoing one-off Test against Bangladesh at Hyderabad, Gujarat's first-ever Ranji Trophy-winning captain Parthiv Patel said that he was waiting for other opportunities to impress.
"I did what I could have done in the opportunities I got. Rest of it is not in my control. I am on top of my game and I am sure more opportunities will come. It's great that there is competition," said Parthiv who replaced the injured Saha for the last three Test matches against England before giving way to the fit-again number one wicket-keeper against Bangladesh.
West also have in their ranks Mumbai's 2015 Ranji Trophy winning captain and wicket keeper, Aditya Tare. Eyes will be trained on pint-sized Kedar Jadhav too after his exploits with the bat in the ODI series against England. South is to be led by Karnataka skipper R Vinay Kumar and has veteran Dinesh Karthik in it apart from promising youngsters Mayank Agarwal, Vijay Shankar as well as the seasoned left arm pacer Sreenath Aravind.
Among those who will be watched closely from the East ranks is young wicket keeper batsman Ishan Kishan. The side has other experienced men like pacer Ashok Dinda, wicket-keeper batsman Shreevats Goswami, left arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem and former South players Amit Verma and Arun Karthik.