The Duleep Trophy enters into a third round of matches on Thursday with plenty at stake for the players in the run-up to next month's series against Australia. The probables chosen to attend the one week camp in Chennai will be announced on January 29, so the next two rounds (Jan 18-21 and 25-28) will be crucial for the fringe players who are frantically trying to catch the eye of the national selectors. However, one would assume, that the team for the first Test - which will be announced on February 15 - does not have to be restricted to those who attend the camp. Thus performances in the last round of Duleep games from February 1-4 and the Challenger series from February 12-15 could also be factored into the final selection.

With not a single outright result in the previous four games, there is little to separate the teams at this stage of the competition. North Zone which is currently leading the pack with 10 points from two games take on East Zone, lying fourth with five points from a solitary encounter, in Guwahati. East will be heartened by the successful run chase at Kanpur when Rohan Gavaskar and wicket keeper Deep Dasgupta guided them past Central's 421 for the loss of only six wickets. The top order looks a bit short of runs, especially skipper Shiv Sunder Das who has been off colour in his last few domestic appearances after the Zimbabwe series. Debashis Mohanty, indisposed for East's pipeopener, should be keen to press his claims further after a standout Ranji season. Assam seamer Javed Zaman and his state mate, left arm spinner Sukhbinder Singh were among the wickets against Central but East would have been disappointed that veteran spinner Utpal Chatterjee failed to deliver.

On a helpful wicket at Mohali, North had the luxury of including three seamers plus Reetinder Sodhi. The sole spinner in the attack, Sharandeep Singh bowled a paltry five overs. At Guwahati, if North choose to return to a conventional two spinner attack, Harbhajan Singh should be back in the fold. The 20-year-old off spinner was unfortunate to be left out after being the pick of the slow bowlers, besides showing pretensions with the bat, in the opener against South at Vijayawada. Left arm seamers, Ashish Nehra and the fast improving Surinder Singh Bagal have been doing a fine job upfront with the new ball. After the run riot at Vijayawada, the North batsmen were much mellowed last time round, only the exciting Virender Shewag firing on all cylinders. Opening bat Akash Chopra is also on a hot streak with two centuries and a half century in his three innings in the competition.

The other engagement is between West Zone (six from two) and South Zone (three from one) at Surat. Although Sachin Tendulkar continues to absent himself, his fellow Mumbaikar Ajit Agarkar replaces Zaheer Khan under the rotation policy suggested by John Wright. With both Iqbal Siddiqui and Santosh Saxena putting in a strong showing last week against North at Mohali, West could continue with a three man seam attack. Spin will then be in the custody of Sairaj Bahutule who was used very sparingly in the same game, bowling just nine out of 87 overs, and skipper Hrishikesh Kanitkar. West's batting is strengthened by the return of Vinod Kambli, still a killer batsman in the domestic arena where he is perhaps destined to remain for the rest of his playing career. Kambli's inclusion will mean the dropping of either Abhijit Kale or Niraj Patel.

After sitting out the first match, skipper Rahul Dravid is back to pep up South's batting. Their frontline batsmen disappointed on a flat wicket against North Zone where it took nightwatchman Thiru Kumaran to assist VVS Laxman in offering token resistance to a huge opposition total. The two openers Sadagoppan Ramesh and Sridharan Sriram who fell cheaply will especially be looking to reassert themselves with big knocks here. Laxman himself is in supreme touch, having stroked nine hundreds in his last nine domestic games. Where the streak will end is anybody's guess. South's bowling fortunes can only get better after their torrid time in the opener when they conceded 708 despite having five specialist bowlers with India caps. National coach John Wright's presence at Surat, along with chairman of selectors Chandu Borde, should inspire the boys to produce their best effort.

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