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Selectors to pick Sahara Cup squad on Friday

The five-member national selection committee, comprising Ramakant Desai, Shivlal Yadav, Sambaran Bannerjee, M Pandove and Kishen Rungta, will meet at the Cricket Club of India premises in Mumbai on Friday, August 29, to pick the squad for the Sahara Cup.

This will be the last selection exercise for this particular committee, before it comes to the end of its tenure and is disbanded.

Interestingly, the captain and coach - Sachin Tendulkar and Madan Lal, respectively - have been asked to attend as 'special invitees'. Which, first up, indicates that there will be no change in captaincy for the tour of Toronto for the five-game Sahara Cup series, followed by a tour of Pakistan for three more one day encounters. Madan Lal, meanwhile, enters his final month as coach of the side. The BCCI has already indicated that Anshuman Gaikwad will be the next coach of the Indian side, his initial one-year contract to begin in October.

The selectors and the "special invitees" will confront a rather thorny issue when they meet in Mumbai. Javagal Srinath has of late indicated that he would like to return to the national squad for the Sahara Cup. And given that the Indian bowling has demonstrably lacked teeth on the Lankan tour - a problem compounded by the fact that Prasad has, thanks to overwork, developed a rather painful inflammation of the right shoulder - the temptation would be to bring Srinath back into the side.

However, the selectors will be forced to confront the dilemma of bringing Srinath back too early, and risking an aggravation of his shoulder injury which could put him out of action for the forthcoming Test and ODI series against first Sri Lanka, and then Australia.

Chairman of selectors Ramakant Desai gave some indication of selectorial thinking when he indicated that he had not, as of date, received any official intimation that Srinath is fit and can be considered for selection.

Srinath had, a week earlier, informed the media that he has sent a fitness certificate to the BCCI. He added that he would be testing his shoulder in a match situation, for the first time, in the first week of September when he turns out in a domestic competition hosted by the KSCA in connection with its diamond jubilee celebrations.