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Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy: Star-packed North Zone favourites to lift T20 inter-zonals

Yuvraj, Gambhir, Dhawan, Harbhajan, Nehra, are some of the big names who'll step out for North Zone.

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(L-R) Gautam Gamnhir, Yuvraj Singh and Shikhar Dhawan
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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, to name a few, to bank on.

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 in the league 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.

"This is the best possible team West can put out. We will try and see everyone gets an opportunity all 15, three players are going out after two games to play in the warm-up game against Australia (at the nearby Brabourne Stadium from February 17-19)," he said.

"It's perfect timing, just before IPL auction on the 20th because T20 zonals have finished everyhere. It's perfect timing for players who want to prove themselves and whoever does well will have bright opportunities with franchises during IPL auction. All teams are strong, we will try to get momentum, just about momentum, who gets better momentum, may be bit of a toss depending on moisture in the morning."

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