Selectors unlikely to opt for changes

Big Three are most likely to figure in the initial part of Pak series

MUMBAI: The Challenger Series, now underway in Ahmedabad, was supposed to be the platform for fringe players to impress upon the national selectors for the forthcoming series against Pakistan, but the action on the first day doesn’t seem to have impressed the five wisemen of Indian cricket much.

The indications emanating from Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera, is that not many changes are likely for the first two or three ODIs against Pakistan.

The squad will be picked in Ahmedabad on Saturday, but chances of wholesale changes are dim. The team that was part of the seventh ODI against Australia on October 17 is likely to retained.

The only possible change could be Tamil Nadu skipper S Badrinath making way for Gautam Gambhir.

The Delhi opener, who has carved out a niche for himself with some swashbuckling batting in Twenty20 games, was out of the Indian team for the last four ODIs against Australia due to injury.

The indication to the effect came from the chief selector himself. “We want to go with the best team possible in every tournament. And if a player needs rest or gets injured than other player can be given the opportunity,” Dilip Vengsarkar, who is in Ahmedabad with all his colleagues, told mediapersons on Thursday.

Earlier, there was a talk that Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid, the two most experienced players in the team along with Sachin Tendulkar, could be rested for the Pakistan series.

Dravid, one may recall, was even dropped for the Mumbai ODI.

But the wisemen are learnt to be in favour of retaining the Big Three, considering the intensity and the high-voltage nature of the series against the arch-rivals who are scheduled to arrive in India on November 1 for five ODIs and three Tests.

The first ODI will be held at Guwahati on November 5.

Coach meeting

It is learnt that the special coach committee will meet in Mumbai in the first week of November.

Although no date has yet been fixed, tentatively, the committee, comprising three former India captains — Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and S Venkataraghavan — besides four top officials of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, are likely to meet in Mumbai on November 3.

Gavaskar and Shastri are believed to have exchanged views with BCCI president Sharad Pawar during the Indian Premier League meeting in the city on October 17 and are learnt to have decided on calling a meeting.

It was not immediately known how the seven-member committee will go about in zeroing on the new coach, but one Board official said initially they would screen the applications received so far in response to their advertisement for the coach’s post.

The committee was scheduled to meet in Bangalore on September 29 but due to the unavailability of the members, it was indefinitely postponed, forcing the Board to continue its interim arrangement vis-a-vis coach.

For the Pakistan series, the Board might go in for the continuation of the present arrangement which means Lalchand Rajput may keep the reins of the Indian team. But confirmation to this effect is yet come.