 It’s selection time again
 ‘Yuvraj bats for Sourav’ said a recent headline. I have come to take most of what the media have to say with a pinch of salt, otherwise I would have worried about the unnecessary comments on the need for Ganguly’s inclusion in the Indian Test team ascribed to the young left-hander laid low by injury. According to the report, Yuvraj Singh had said Ganguly deserved a place in the eleven on his own merit, and did not depend on an injury to Yuvraj for that. The young man is also said to have praised Ganguly’s courage, leadership qualities and encouragement of youngsters like Yuvraj. As a parting shot Yuvraj also claimed to be the bad boy in the class. Just when we all thought he was settling down into a mature, responsible young player, dedicated to excellence and the team’s cause. With the media’s wretched obsession with gossip, Yuvraj must have made these statements out of sheer disgust at their hunger for
sound bites.
 Now that Yuvraj is not available for the first Test, Ganguly’s place in the team becomes more or less certain. It also allows the team management the luxury of a specialist opener! And in my opinion, that slot belongs to Gautam Gambhir, who has already proved himself. Wasim Jaffer has earned his spurs with his consistent domestic performances, but he can wait in the wings for a while. Also he will be available as a back-up option, should Virender Sehwag’s recovery from his shoulder injury be delayed.
The other batting places are filled by automatic choices in the skipper, Tendulkar, Laxman and Ganguly. The choice of wicket keeper should pose no problem to the selectors. In fact, if you conducted a referendum in the country on who would be the choice of the public if they had to select a single player, Mahendra Singh Dhoni should be an almost unanimous selection.
 That leaves us with the bowling options. Irfan Pathan now falls under the all-rounder category and he is the obvious choice for bowler No. 1. To partner him with the new ball, I would introduce Sreesanth, who has some pace and will be raring to go after his recent success at Karachi. Anil Kumble is without doubt the ace in the pack in the spin department. For the second spinner’s spot, I would dare to blood young leg-spinner Piyush Chawla if I were chairman of selectors. With Harbhajan Singh’s injury a cause for concern and given his recent form in the longer game, I doubt his efficacy against the English who play off spin better anyway than the Australians, Harbhajan’s favourite opponents. Chawla has already proved his ability and temperament in the Challenger Trophy - where he dismissed Tendulkar with a beauty that he delivered with an outrageous brazenness - and in the recent under-19 World Cup. The time to introduce new players is when they are young and unspoilt, not after they have been knocked around into doubt and inhibitions. If critics suggest that he is too young and needs experience before he makes his Test debut, please remind them that Prasanna, Venkataraghavan, Chandrasekhar and Bedi made theirs before their 20th birthday. They didn’t fare too badly after that, did they?
My Indian team for the first Test:
1 V Sehwag
2 G Gambhir
3 R S Dravid
4 S R Tendulkar
5 V V S Laxman
6 S C Ganguly
7 M S Dhoni
8 I Pathan
9 A R Kumble
10 P Chawla
11 S Sreesanth
12 W Jaffer
13 Zaheer Khan
14 A Agarkar
V Ramnarayan
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