The Duleep Trophy resumes on Thursday with the second round of matches in the round-robin league. Both Central & North Zone will be looking to build on the early lead they have opened up in the points table. Falling as it does in the month leading to the Australian tour of India, the event is an important barometer of current form. The fact that several leading players have cried off on the grounds of injury or fatigue may have tended to take the gloss off the competition. Their absence has however helped to focus the selectoral attention firmly on a host of fringe players who have been lurking in the wings for quite a while now. This tournament has now become a celebration of the Jai Prakash Yadavs and the Dinesh Mongias.

Holders North Zone will go in as favourites against West Zone at Mohali after their batting display in the opening round at Vijayawada where they made over 1000 runs for the loss of just 11 wickets. Akash Chopra, skipper Vikram Rathour, Dinesh Mongia, Virender Shewag and Yuvraj Singh make for a daunting batting line-up which could be augmented by the presence of Reetinder Sodhi who missed the game against South through illness. Given the traditional nature of the Mohali wicket which has the reputation of assisting the seamers first up, Sodhi would be a value addition at No.6. Stumper Vijay Dahiya, who missed the best part of the last game with a stiff neck after being named to the eleven, will also be eager to be part of the action again.

With Harbhajan Singh bowling with guile and batting with assurance too, Sodhi, if brought in, could replace either Sharandeep Singh or Rahul Sanghvi, both of whom went wicketless at Vijayawada. Ashish Nehra, in impressive form in the zonal Ranji Trophy league, missed the opening game but is expected to return to share the new ball with Jammu & Kashmir's Surendra Singh. Twenty six year old left armer Singh's five wicket haul against South on a singularly unhelpful wicket was a notable accomplishment.

Nayan Mongia's West Zone team remains without Sachin Tendulkar and Ajit Agarkar who will take the field only from the third game against South Zone at Surat. In Vinod Kambli's continued absence, the batting is heavily reliant on India discards Jacob Martin, Wasim Jaffer and Hrishikesh Kanitkar. Gujarat youngster Niraj Patel and Maharashtra's Abhijit Kale gave fair accounts of their batting abilities in the last round but should be looking to convert the fifties into larger scores.

The bowling will be spearheaded by Zaheer Khan whose pace was blunted by the bland VCA wicket in Nagpur during the opening game. Iqbal Siddiqui, who shared new ball duties with Khan in Nagpur, or Santosh Saxena will provide the back-up. One of the heartening features of this domestic season has been the resurgence of Sairaj Bahutule who missed most of last season through injury. With the added presence of his fellow Mumbai tweaker Ramesh Powar, the spin department seems reasonably well endowed.

For their part, Central Zone also start favourites in their home engagement against East Zone at the Green Park in Kanpur. Their batting looks to be in good hands with Jai Prakash Yadav and Mohd. Kaif coming off centuries in the last round. Twenty six year old opening batsman, Yadav has had a sizzling run this season with both bat and ball, Amit Pagnis the Railways import from Mumbai is also in good nick, while skipper Amay Khurasiya and Gagan Khoda will be keen to put behind failures in the last game.

Left arm seamer Shalabh Sriwastava had a good outing against West where he shared the new ball with Yadav. The latter, who took 15 wickets in a Ranji Trophy game against Vidarbha earlier in the season, was used sparingly in the last round, which may pave the way for the experienced Ashish Zaidi to be pressed into service. Murali Kartik who was indisposed at Nagpur is likely to strengthen the attack, in partnership with experienced off spinner Kulamani Parida.

East Zone makes its first appearance in this year's edition, bereft of the resting Saurav Ganguly and the injured Devang Gandhi, always a force at this level. India opening bat Shiv Sunder Das leads the side which has as its batting bastions, Nikhil Haldipur, Rohan Gavaskar, Sanjay Raul and Rashmi Ranjan Parida. The sixth batsman's slot could be filled by either Assam skipper Syed Zuffri or Bihar skipper Rajiv Kumar while Deep Dasgupta, who replaced Saba Karim as Bengal keeper in the midst of the Ranji season, gets the opportunity to wield the gloves at zonal level. Debashish Mohanty and Mihir Diwakar comprise the seam attack, with the slow department being bolstered by the ageless Utpal Chatterjee and Assam's Sukhbinder Singh, both left arm spinners.

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