Sehwag, Yuveraj and Sodhi likely to get the nod for tri-series

By G. Viswanath

MUMBAI, JUNE 12. There was no hue and cry when the national selectors picked a 15-member team in Bangalore for the first part of the Zimbabwe tour. Everybody seemed to be happy and gave good marks to the five selectors, who together with captain Sourav Ganguly and coach John Wright, chose the team for the two-Test series.

There were, of course, misgivings and an undertone of anger when Nayan Mongia was not picked among the list of 25 probables during the Ranji Trophy final in Baroda.

The selectors appeared to have been completely guided by Ganguly and Wright's opinion in the matter of picking Sameer Dighe, who had left everyone cold for a major part of the third Test against Australia in Chennai.

He, however, won admirers for his plucky show while batting in the fourth innings and played a significant role in clinching the Test and series for India. Dighe, who made his debut in the Chennai Test, got the badge of a teamman and was rewarded by being selected ahead of Haryana's young Ajay Ratra and Bengal's Deepdas Gupta for Zimbabwe.

Dighe will be the automatic choice for the tri-series for which the national selectors will carry out changes at the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) office at Churchgate on Wednesday. Ganguly and Wright made it a point to highlight his contribution in the first Test which India won in Bulawayo by eight wickets. Things have become brighter and brighter for Dighe whose previous long but less memorable stint as an India 'keeper, was in the Carlton & United series in Australia in 2000.

At present, there are 15 Indian players in Zimbabwe. The squad will be reduced to 14 for the tri-series in which the other two teams will be West Indies and Zimbabwe. It's been almost five years since the Indian selectors put into practice picking specialists for one-day internationals and tournaments involving more than two teams.

Those who are likely to return home after the second Test in Harare are fast bowler Javagal Srinath, opening batsmen Sadagopan Ramesh and Shiv Sundar Das and leg-spinner Sairaj Bahutule.

The selectors went by the assumption of hard and bouncy pitches and chose five seamers - Srinath, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Ajit Agarkar and Debasis Mohanty - for the Test series. Harvinder Singh and Rakesh Patel (he was replaced by Surinder Singh Bagal) were the remaining two seamers who attended the week-long camp in Bangalore.

Harvinder, who was a key member of the Railways team that reached the final of the Ranji Trophy, is likely to replace Srinath. Venkatesh Prasad was not among the 25 probables, but Mr. Borde had said in Baroda that `his committee will have an open mind' when they meet to select the team for the tri-series.

The other three places are likely to be taken by the batsman- allrounder from Delhi, Virendra Sehwag, and Punjab's Yuveraj Singh and Reetinder Singh Sodhi. The selectors will have to drop one more player - Agarkar or Mohanty.

They would like to know the status of Agarkar (injured according to reports), who made way for Nehra in the first Test. The scope to make changes is limited and hence the meeting at the MCA office on the morrow is likely to go smoothly.

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