Calcutta: On paper, North Zone perhaps have the strongest team in this season’s Deodhar Trophy. With the likes of Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh and Mohit Sharma in their line-up, it would be unwise to say that they are not the favourites.

So, logically, Sunday’s semi-final match between North and East Zone, at the Wankhede, is heavily tilted towards the former. But East captain Manoj Tiwary disagrees with the point. He oozed confidence, claiming that no team can be classified as strong or weak.

“No team is strong, no team is weak… I don’t think there is any one favourite. We had a good preparation, we practised hard for the last two days and we are confident that we can win Sunday’s match. We have a very balanced side,” Manoj told The Telegraph on Saturday.

When pointed out that besides Harbhajan, Yuvraj and Mohit, North have the likes of Unmukt Chand, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Parvez Rasool and Mandeep Singh in their squad, Manoj offered an interesting counter point.

“If you are saying that North have a strong batting line-up, I do agree… Yes, they have some good batsmen… But I think our batsmen are in better form… We have probably scored more centuries than them. So I can say that we have an edge in that respect,” Manoj said.

North’s bowling attack is also strong enough. If Harbhajan is there in the spin department, pacers Mohit, Sandeep Sharma and Vikas Tokas could prove to be a handful in helpful conditions.

Manoj hasn’t decided on his team combination yet, but it is likely that he will go in with two pacers and as many spinners, with Odisha captain Biplab Samantray playing the role of a fast-bowling all-rounder.

In that case, the Bengal pairing of Ashok Dinda and Veer Pratap Singh would share the new ball, with Sourashish Lahiri and Shahbaz Nadeem being the spinners.