Selection unlikely to throw up surprises or shocks

While the selection committee is set to name a 15-member squad for the three home Tests against Pakistan, the real attention is focussed on the playing XI they have in mind when picking this squad. With a new captain, Anil Kumble, having just been installed, it remains to be seen what mix he opts for.

As things stood on Tuesday evening, a day before the selectors met, ten members of the playing XI were finalised. Dinesh Karthik, who was dropped from the one-day squad against Pakistan, has scored a century and five half-centuries in the last six Tests he has played and will open with Wasim Jaffer. The trinity of Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly is set to be pencilled in when the time comes to write out the team-sheet for the first Test in Delhi. Mahendra Singh Dhoni is an automatic selection. Zaheer Khan and Sreesanth, barring last-minute fitness issues, will form the pace-attack, complemented by two spinners - Kumble and Harbhajan Singh.

That leaves only one spot open, and vying for this spot are VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, and in the unlikely event that Kumble wants to play five bowlers, Irfan Pathan. With this being his first series in charge, Kumble is unlikely to experiment and Laxman should be a certainty.

In the squad then, there is likely to be place for an additional fast bowler, in RP Singh, a spinner - with the in-form Murali Kartik being the obvious choice - and one other batsman. The only real difficult choice the selectors face in picking this squad - who they will leave out when it comes to the actual XI is another matter altogether - is in filling this slot.

While the form book points to Gautam Gambhir, who was in the Test squad that beat England 1-0 recently, there's some pressure on the selectors to include Virender Sehwag whose Test average still hovers around 50. The difficulty, though, is that while it is eminently possible to find space in the 15 for Sehwag, it's hard to see how he will fit into the XI. And this being the case, the selectors could well ask Sehwag to turn out for Delhi, rather than warm the bench in the dressing room. It's not the same with Gambhir, who is still young and inexperienced and might benefit from the experience being in the dressing room, even if he does not play.

The other option would be to relieve both Delhi openers, as there is cover in the batting department anyhow. This would then give Pathan a serious chance of making the cut. But Pathan's record in home Tests is ordinary, with only 26 wickets coming from 12 matches at an average of nearly 45.

If Kumble does have a serious say in selection - and he's the kind of person who stamps his authority, albeit with minimum of fuss - then tomorrow's selection will provide some insight into his line of thinking.

India squad (likely) 1 Dinesh Karthik, 2 Wasim Jaffer, 3 Rahul Dravid, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 Sourav Ganguly, 6 VVS Laxman, 7 Mahendra Singh Dhoni, 8 Anil Kumble, 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Zaheer Khan, 11 Sreesanth, 12 Yuvraj Singh, 13 RP Singh, 14 Murali Kartik, 15 Virender Sehwag/Gautam Gambhir/Irfan Pathan