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Selectors watch as Srinath, Prasad pull out the stops

The M Chinnaswamy Stadium track in Bangalore is perhaps not what Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad would, ideally, have liked to find just when they are looking to bowl themselves back into the national team after injury layoffs.

Flat and hard, with a deceptive sprinkling of lifeless grass, it was the kind of track on which the ball actually came on slower after pitching. And the seam movement that was available, too, was blunted by the slowness of the track.

To add to the drama, three national selectors -- Sambaran Bannerjee, M Pandove and Shivlal Yadav -- were on hand to watch proceedings on day one of Karnataka's Ranji Trophy fixture against Kerala.

Their presence made sense in one way -- but not in another. Given that come November, India goes up against one of the best batting sides in the world, Sri Lanka, in Tests and ODIs, it makes sense to concentrate on the side's bowling, check out all available options and try to put together the best possible lineup. And given that need, Karnataka is the team to check out -- having in its ranks not only Srinath and Prasad, who if match fit and ready to play form one of the best new ball combinations in world cricket, but also former India stars Anil Kumble and Sunil Joshi, both on the comeback trail.

So having the selectors watch the game is just the thing to do -- but given that the team will be picked after the November 6 BCCI general body meeting, and that said meeting will put in place a new selection committee, just what use is it having the current lot going through the motions?

The question is moot.

In any event, their time was not wasted. Srinath, who in the last three weeks has bowled in various games starting with a KSCA-conducted tournament and then the Hong Kong Sixes without ever stretching himself to the limit, finally pulled out all stops with a blistering spell of flat-out pace bowling. 2-33 was his reward, to add to the 1/15 in ten overs he took against the same opponents in a one day game over the weekend -- but more to the point was the fact that he was finally stretching himself, pushing his shoulder to the limit, and at the end of his spell, looked singularly untroubled.

The game also gave him an opportunity to test his new throwing technique -- recommended to him by Rodney Marsh and Dennis Lillee during Srinath's stint at the Australian Cricket Academy earlier this month. Lillee had in fact indicated that Srinath's rotator cuff injury was the result not of bowling too much, but of a defective throwing technique that put undue strain on his shoulder. In this game, Srinath used the over-the-shoulder throw favoured by baseballers and, increasingly, in vogue among cricketers in Australia, South Africa and Sri Lanka, three teams where the physiotherapist plays a key role.

Meanwhile Srinath's strike partner Venkatesh Prasad, with a trademark exhibition of seam bowling that fetched him 3 for 25, showed that he, too, had fully recovered from the muscular inflammation resulting from a fall in the nets in Colombo, just before the Asia Cup. Interestingly, Prasad after a long time was getting his late leg-cutter working again at will -- as good a signal as any that he is fully fit again.

Anil Kumble, who appeared to be running back into peak form with a haul of 11 wickets in the Irani Trophy game against Bombay at the Wankhede earlier this month, lost it again with a rather ordinary performance. But his striking partner, Sunil Joshi, turned in an impeccable display of good quality left-arm spin on a track not exactly spin-friendly while taking 4 for 33.

All told, an interesting day for the national selectors who watched Karnataka's bowling -- virtually an international lineup -- take Kerala apart to dismiss them for 181 before ending the day's play on 19 for no loss. Now to see just what the selectors do with the knowledge they gained.