Saurav's socks(-worma)

Have been stuffed by Santa with a ticket to Pak...as announced by the selectors some moments ago. And the person to miss out is, as was very clear in case of such a scenario, Mohammad Kaif. Which is not bad if the selectors(and team management) keep in mind the point he had reached before being turned away...and that he starts off from where he left(wherever that point is..as of today). So, it depends on how the situation is handled...and I hope the team management has had a long comforting chat with him. Not so sure about the selectors.

Talking of which, Mr More continues to bungle...this time at the other extreme. While trying to avoid the earlier 'allrounder' mistake he again fumbles at the question of his past 'commitment to future' story being used to justify Saurav's exclusion.

When questioned over the selectors backtracking over their comments after Ganguly had been left out of the Ahmedabad Test that they were preparing a team with an eye on the future, More said the selectors were not answerable to the media for every decision they take.

"We have some plans for the team, you don't need to know everything about it," More said.

Reminds me of the common wisdom that you fall into a web of lies once you start off with one.

Anyway...back to the team....Zaheer is in, and not surprisingly so. Neither is Jaffer-Gambhir duo for the single opener's slot(which, in fact, can go to a surprise contender like Pathan in case the team management decides to accommodate SG in the 11 at all costs...although personally I would like to see him sit on the bench as first reserve...and I feel this team management is strong enough to do it).

The other surprise is inclusion of Parthiv ahead of Karthik as the reserve keeper. Sure we all have seen Parthiv's growth as an impressive batsman in Challenger, Duleep etc in recent times...and that coupled with his hopefully improved (since I haven't seen enough to judge) keeping was bound to earn him a recall at some point of time. But Karthik, I thought, had not done enough to be edged out yet...heck even his replacement with Dhoni was much debated(although acknowledged that Dhoni's claim was too strong to be ignored as of now).