Young Baroda paceman Irfan Pathan was today rewarded for his consistency in theunder-19 Asia Cup campaign with a berth in the 20-member list of probables for the upcoming four-Test series in Australia.
The 19-year-old left-arm seamer was the only newcomer in the list which also included Tamil Nadu opener SadagoppanRamesh, Bengal wicketkeeper-batsman Deep Dasgupta and Railways left-arm spinner Murali Kartik.
Delhi opener Aakash Chopra, who had an impressive Test debut against New Zealand last month, and Mumbai paceman AvishkarSalvi were also named among the probables announced by cricket board Secretary S.K. Nair here.
Nair said the final 16-member squad for the tour would be announced after India's last league match against NewZealand in the tri-series in Hyderabad on Saturday.
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"The selectors want to see the performance of the players on Saturday before finalising the team. The team managementalso wants to wait till the Hyderabad match," Nair said.
Nair said the team will leave for Australia on November 21 from Chennai. The Indians are scheduled to play four Testsin Brisbane (Dec 4-8), Adelaide (Dec 12-16), Melbourne (Dec 26-30) and Sydney (Jan 2-6).
Probables: Saurav Ganguly (capt), Aakash Chopra, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, V.V.S. Laxman, Parthiv Patel, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Avishkar Salvi, Ajit Agarkar, Harbhajan Singh, Murali Kartik, Anil Kumble, Lakshmipathy Balaji, S. Ramesh, Yuvraj Singh, Hemang Badani, Irfan Pathan, Ashish Nehra and Deep Dasgupta.
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Sanjay Bangar, who opened the innings with Virender Sehwag on India's last overseas tour of New Zealand inDecember-January, was the only notable omission.
The announcement was made after a two-hour meeting which also reviewed India's "unsatisfactory" performance in theon-going triangular series.
"The selectors are dissatisfied with the team's performance in the tri-series. They discussed various aspectsbut were generally not satisfied with the bowling and fielding," Nair said.
The probables list includes five pacemen taking into account the fast andbouncy Australian wickets while Harbhajan, Kumble, Kartik are the three specialistspinners.
The left-handed Ramesh, who played his last Test against Sri Lanka in Colombo in 2001, found favour by virtue of hisconsistent performance in the last couple of months, the highlight of which was the century against the visiting Kiwisin a lead-up match recently.
Also making his way into the probables' list was Dasgupta discarded after his appearance in India's first Testagainst the West Indies in Guyana in 2001-02.
The committee headed by former Test wicketkeeper Syed Kirmani was supposed to announce the touring squad today butdeferred it by a couple of days apparently to send down the message that places in the side cannot be taken for granted.
Due to personal engagements, North Zone selector Kirti Azad could not attend the meeting which was attended by Ganguly and coach John Wright.
PTI
