The season-ender Zonal One-Day tournament for Deodhar Trophy is reduced to a routine affair with no place to fill in India line-up.

When the country's top players are going great guns, there is no place to fill in the India team line-up.

IPL begins in about a month's time

The second edition of the Indian Premier League beginning in about a month's time, will be the only motivation for the fringe players to do well in this zonal meet as they would like to take the momentum into the Twenty20 extravaganza.

The Board has added some foreign flavour to the meet by inviting Zimbabwe President's XI to help in their revival in cricket.

Over the next six days beginning on Friday, the five zonal teams -- North, Central, East, West and South -- and the Zimbabwe President's XI will lock horns in Group A and B on a round-robin basis in two venues of Barabati Stadium and Ravenshaw University Ground.

The chance to clash with the top Indian fringe players will give Prosper Utseya-led Zimbabwe President's side a huge boost in their redevelopment of cricket.

Having come up with some much-improved performances in Bangladesh where they lost 1-2 before whitewashing Kenya 5-0 in Nairobi, the President's side of Zimbabwe will surely add the surprise element.

The side, however, will miss out on the services of former Zimbabwe captain Tatenda Taibu who was part of the side that travelled Bangladesh and Kenya. Taibu has been replaced by 21-year-old Regis Chakabva.

West Zone start favourites

On paper, West Zone appear the heavyweights, boasting the top three run getters -- Wasim Jaffer, Ajinkya Rahane (both Mumbai) and Cheteshwar Pujara (Saurashtra)of the Ranji Trophy Super League this season.

Led by former India opener Jaffer, the eight-time winners West Zone, who are the reigning Duleep Trophy zonal one-day champions, will open their campaign against South at Barabati tomorrow.

West Zone are in Group B along with South and Zimbabwe President's XI.

With wicket-keeper batsman Parthiv Patel as his deputy, Jaffer has a strong batting line-up at his disposal.

Besides, Saurashtra run machine Pujara and the prolific Mumbai batsman Rahane, West's long batting line-up has Saurashtra's Ravindra Jadeja, Maharashtra's Kedar Jadhav, and Gujarat's Bhavik Thaker to its credit.

Jaffer, Pujara, Jadeja, Thaker and Jadhav form the core of this season's Ranji Super League having amassed 650-plus runs each. The captain himself boasts of a staggering 84 average with 1260 runs this Ranji season under his belt and the right-handed opener will look to continue his solid form in the zonal meet.

In absence of experienced campaigners Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Dinesh Kaarthick, Laxmipathy Balaji and Sreesanth, South appear a depleted side and have to rely heavily again on captain Subramaniam Badrinath who has been the Tamil Nadu batting mainstay for quite a long time.

Badrinath's deputy, Robin Uthappa will get another chance to prove himself after his Team India discard. South will also have in-form players like Ravichandran Aswhin, Srikkanth Anirudha who shined for their state side Tamil Nadu's triumph in the national onedayers for the Vijay Hajare Trophy in Agartala recently.

Central to take on North

Defending champions Central Zone will also take the field on Friday against North and will be without Suresh Raina, doing national duty in New Zealand.

Skipper Mohammad Kaif and wicketkeeper batsman Naman Ojha will form the core of the batting, while Central's main strength will be their bowling department bolstered by former India medium-pacer RP Singh and leggie Piyush Chawla who will look to impress the selectors.

All eyes would be on talented youngsters Mithun Manhas and Manoj Tiwary who have been named captains for North and East Zone sides.

Winners for a record 11 times, North will have a tough task with their star players busy with Team India. All-rounder Manhas will depend on batting mainstay Aakash Chopra, Virat Kohli while bowling department will rely heavily on leg-spinner Chetanya Nanda and medium-pacer Pradeep Sangwan.

Four times champions East Zone will have the home condition and support besides promising talent Tiwary will surely be under scrutiny with national selection committee chairman Krishanmachari Srikkanth arriving on March 15.

The top two teams of each group will clash in the summit showdown to be held at Barabati on March 18.

Group A: Central Zone, North Zone and East Zone; Group B: West Zone, South Zone and Zimbabwe President's XI.