Selection Committee to follow WC dictat while selecting team

Mumbai, Apr 19 (UNI) Armed with a dictat from the BCCI Working Committee to infuse new blood in the national team, the selection committee faces an envious task of 'whom to leave and whom to include' when they meet tomorrow to select the Indian team for the next month's Bangladesh tour.

India will begin their tour to Bangladesh on May 7 where they will play two tests and three one-dayers with the ODIs being played first. However, the selection committee, in a departure from the past, will select both the ODIs and Test teams who would together undergo a camp from May 2 to 6 at Kolkata.

The selectors have also been put under pressure with a rare directive from the Working Committee to select a young team under an experienced captain (Dravid having already being retained) would definitely have some seniors already on their radar to be dropped though it seems that old warhorses Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly are likely to be retained.

The national selectors have an unenviable task given the turmoil in Indian cricket following the team's dismal performance in the World Cup and the subsequent unceremonious exit of coach Greg Chappell.

Selection panel chief Dilip Vengsarkar and his colleagues Venkatapathy Raju, Bhupinder Singh, Sanjay Jagdale and Ranjib Biswal will hold discussions with captain Rahul Dravid, and newly appointed cricket manager Ravi Shastri before deciding the squads for the tour from May 7 to 29.

Vengsarkar has already indicated that around 20 players would be chosen for the two teams, but a wholesale sacking of the seniors appears unlikely. Chappell had reportedly questioned the commitment of the seniors in the World Cup and had called for younger players to be inducted in the team.

The biggest name in Indian cricket - Tendulkar - is expected to be chosen along with another ex-captain Ganguly after having given a satisfactory explanation to the Board for his outburst in the media against Chappell.

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