Ganguly may come back from the cold

Mumbai: Irrepressible is a word which fits Sourav Ganguly like a glove to hand. It would be no different once more as he is almost certain to get the selectors' nod today in the squad of 14 in for the first two Tests against Australia, beginning with the one in Bangalore on October 9.

Ganguly is choice of the newly elected body of selectors, headed by former India opener Kris Srikkanth, despite him being overlooked for the recently concluded Irani Trophy and the subsequent national camp presently under way in Bangalore.

Surprisingly, the ones who could queer the pitch for his return could be none other than coach Gary Kirsten, if not captain Anil Kumble, who will join the five selectors in the selection meeting here. The South African, in particular, isn't quite a Ganguly fan and actually censured him on his fitness in Sri Lanka recently.

Roll of the dice

If selectors don't face too much of veto power, Ganguly alone wouldn't be the only surprise selection. They are likely to give their nod in favour of lanky paceman Munaf Patel, left-arm spinner Murali Kartik and new batting talent Subramanium Badrinath.

The dice began to roll in favour of Ganguly as his batting alternatives in the Irani Trophy: be it Mohammad Kaif, Virat Kohli or Badrinath did not quite cover themselves with glory in the Irani Trophy.

Team India is unlikely to experiment with untried and untested against the world champions and realise that conceding early advantage could be disastrous to their ambitions of wresting back the series at home. Australia had won on their last visit here in 2004.

Ganguly, it may be recalled, played a match-winning hand in his last Test innings on home soil, a gritty 87 against South Africa in Kanpur in March which helped the hosts to escape with a drawn series.

Indeed, Ganguly for all his failures in Australia last season and in Sri Lanka more recently where he failed to garner even 100 runs from six innings of three Tests, has had a tremendous record at home where he has scored 745 runs from six Tests in the last 12 months at a whopping average of 74.50.

The left-hander, it appears, has got a whiff of selectors' approval for he has been busy sweating it out at Eden Gardens for the last couple of days. Besides, he has requisitioned a fresh set of bats from his bat supplier in Meerut.

"Yes, he (Ganguly) has requested for a fresh set of bats he wants to use in the Test series against Australia. He has been specific with his request and wants the weight of his bat to be 30 grams less than usual. So instead of usual 1200 gms, he wants 1170gms for the forthcoming series," said Jatin Sarin, owner of his bat manufacturer, SS Sunridges bats.

Likely 14-member squad for the first two Tests

Seven batsmen: Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman and Subramanium Badrinath.

One wicketkeeper: Mahinder Singh Dhoni.

Three fast bowlers: Ishant Sharma, Zaheer Khan and Munaf Patel

Three spinners: Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble and Murali Kartik.