Young Gujarat wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel, who led the India to the under-19World Cup in New Zealand in January, has been included in the Indian Test squadfor the forthcoming tour of England while Javagal Srinath was left out of boththe one-day and Test teams.
The national selectors, who met in Kolkata, announced a 15-member one-daysquad and a 16-member Test team with two wicketkeepers, the other being AjayRatra.
"The five national selectors, along with skipper Saurav Ganguly, met tofinalise the teams for the 83-day tour, beginning later this month," Boardof Control for Cricket in India secretary Niranjan Shah told a press conference.He did not elaborate on the omission of Srinath, who had recently announced hisdecision to retire from Test cricket, but said the selectors felt the currentbunch of pacemen are quite capable.
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"The selectors felt that these boys (pacemen) are doing quite well atthe moment and did not want to disturb the combination," Shah said.
Asked whether Rahul Dravid would continue to keep wickets in the shorterversion of the game, Shah said, "Dravid had kept wickets in the WestIndies. He might continue to do so, but it will be a decision of the teammanagement. As always, it is the team management which will decide the playingeleven, depending on the conditions."
He added: "The selectors have chosen the best available squad."
Selection committee chairman Chandu Borde did not turn up at the pressconference.
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The selectors also decided to retain even those players who failed to impresson the West Indies tour.
Despite failing miserably in the Test series in the Caribbean, diminutiveopener Shiv Sundar Das was retained in the Test squad and is expected to openwith Mumbai's Wasim Jaffer.
The Test team has just two specialist openers and Shah indicated that SanjayBangar could be used as the third opener if required.
Srinath's decision to retire from Test cricket in order to concentrate onnext year's World Cup paved the way for Ajit Agarkar to stage a comeback to theteam for the longer version of the game. Agarkar was not selected in the Testteam for the series against the West Indies.
The one-day squad will leave for England on June 18.
One-Day Squad: Saurav Ganguly (capt), Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar,Virender Sehwag, Dinesh Mongia, Mohammad Kaif, Yuvraj Singh, V.V.S. Laxman, AjayRatra, Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra andTinu Yohannan.
Test Squad: Saurav Ganguly (capt) Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, V.V.S. Laxman, Virendra Sehwag, Shiv Sundar Das, Wasim Jaffar, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Ajit Agarkar, Tinu Yohannan, Ajay Ratra, Sanjay Bangar andParthiv Patel.
PTI
