Pathan to play in Deodhar Trophy

Injured and out-of-form speedster Irfan Pathan will have one more opportunity to prove his fitness and form before the World Cup in the Deodhar Trophy limited overs league match.

Pathan was on Monday chosen to play for West Zone in the inter-zonal tournament opener against Central Zone at Ahmedabad before leaving for the West Indies with the Indian team for the World Cup on February 28.

The Baroda youngster, who has been picked in the 15-member Indian squad for the mega event starting on March 13, missed the entire four-match home series against Sri Lanka that ended at Visakhapatnam on February 17 due to a sore shoulder.

He played in the fourth and final ODI of the previous home series against the West Indies at Vadodara on March 31 before injuring his shoulder and has been told to prove his fitness through the Deodhar Trophy encounter by the Cricket Board before leaving for the Caribbean.

Pathan is to be replaced by Gujarat's Sidharth Trivedi from the second match onwards in the West team, according to selection committee meeting's convener Prof Ratnakar Shetty.

The first three matches of the Deodhar Trophy will be held in Ahmedabad's Motera Stadium and the latter stages of the tournament, to be played in the league format, will be held in Mumbai at the Brabourne Stadium and Wankhede Stadium.

Pathan has played just one match at the international level after he was sent back unceremoniously from the South Africa tour before the conclusion of the Test series and questions were raised about his fitness and form when he was picked for the World Cup by the Dilip Vengsarkar-led national selection panel on February 12.

He missed the last two matches of the series against Sri Lanka too after being picked for the mega event.

BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah said the left-arm bowler needs to prove his fitness by playing in the Deodhar Trophy match before he joins his World Cup teammates in Mumbai on February 27.

BCCI president Sharad Pawar will address the team on the same day prior to the team's departure the next day.

West Zone squad: Amol Muzumdar (captain), Sairaj Bahutule (vice-captain), Wasim Jaffer, Parthiv Patel, Rohit Sharma, Pinal Shah, Ramesh Powar, Rajesh Pawar, Rakesh Patel, Irfan Pathan (to be replaced by Sidharth Trivedi from second match), Srikant Munde, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Yousuf Pathan and Cheteshwar Pujara.

Coach: Chandrakant Pandit; Manager: Atul Bedade.

Deodhar Trophy schedule:
     Feb 25: Central v West, Ahmedabad
     Feb 26: East v South, Ahmedabad
     Feb 27: Central v North, Ahmedabad
     Mar 2: East v West, CCI, Mumbai
     Mar 3: Central v South, CCI, Mumbai
     Mar 4: North v West, CCI, Mumbai
     Mar 7: Central v East, Wankhede, Mumbai
     Mar 8: North v South, Wankhede, Mumbai
     Mar 10: East v North, Wankhede, Mumbai
     Mar 11: South v West, Wankhede, Mumbai.