Selectors go by the form book in picking the probables

The selectors have certainly honoured the form book in picking the 25 probables for the conditioning camp for the series against Australia, to be held at Chennai in two phases - February 6 to 11 and February 16 to 20. The Challenger Trophy Series is sandwiched between the two camps (February 12 to 15) and the selectors also picked the three teams to take part in this competition on Monday.

Players like Orissa medium pacer Debasish Mohanty, veteran left arm spinner from Hyderabad Venkatapathy Raju, the North Zone quartet of batsman Dinesh Mongia, medium pacers Surinder Singh and Ashish Nehra and left arm spinner Rahul Sanghvi are among the 25 probables largely on the form they have displayed in the Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy tournaments.

The certainties are all there and the selectors have thrown the net far and wide, though it is surprising there is no place for Ajay Ratra, captain of the Indian Under-19 team. Besides being a promising stumper, he is also a sound bat. In fact he scored a century against England Under-19 in the third `Test' at Hyderabad on Monday. What is even more surprising is that he does not figure in any of the three teams picked for the Challenger Trophy.

But conspicious by their absence were the dashing left handed batsman Yuvraj Singh and off-spinner Nikhil Chopra. The latter after being exonerated by the BCCI on match fixing charges, was expected to figure among the probables. However, another player who has been exonerated from match fixing charges, wicketkeeper Nayan Mongia finds a place in the list. The only other stumper among the 25 is Vijay Dahiya.

Yuvraj made an impressive debut at the start of the season, but then fell off and has struggled with his form of late. In the home series against Zimbabwe, he was not considered for the two Tests and aggregated just 62 runs from four innings at an average of 15.50 in the one-dayers, his highest being 29 in the last match at Rajkot.

Selection committee chairman Chandu Borde told reporters after the meeting which picked the probables that the selectors were looking out for quality spinners to deal with the Australian batsmen on home pitches. "In fact I, Saurav Ganguly (skipper) and John Wright (coach) discussed about what sort of pitches we are going to play on and what different combinations we can have," he said.

Well, the selectors have picked a variety of spin bowlers ranging from left arm spinners (Raju, Murali Kartik, Sunil Joshi, Sanghvi) to off spinners (Harbhajan Singh, Sharandeep Singh) to leg spinners (WD Balaji Rao). To illustrate that they would be depending on a balanced attack to bowl out the Australians twice in the Test series, the selectors have also picked as many as seven medium pacers - Javagal Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad, Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, Mohanty, Nehra and Surinder Singh.

Coming to the batsmen, the selectors have clearly indicated their choice by picking only two specialist openers in Sadagopan Ramesh and Shiv Sundar Das while the middle order claimants are Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid, Md Kaif, Hemang Badani and Dinesh Mongia.

BCCI secretary Jaywant Lele told reporters in Mumbai on Monday that the Indian A team to play the three-day match against Australia from February 17-19 either at Hyderabad or Nagpur, would be selected on the second day of the camp.

"The Indian team for the first Test match will be selected during the three-day match", Lele added.

Probables for the camp: Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, S Ramesh, Shiv Sunder Das, VVS Laxman, Dinesh Mongia, Hemang Badani, Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar, Debasish Mohanty, Aashish Nehra, Venkatesh Prasad, Surinder Singh, Nayan Mongia, Vijay Dahiya, Rahul Sanghvi, Murali Kartik, Balaji Rao, Sharandeep Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Venkatapathy Raju, Sunil Joshi and Mohammed Kaif.