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- By Parinda News Bureau, February 24, 2006, 11:02 IST
Sourav Ganguly has not been included in the Indian squad that will play England in the first Test at Nagpur .
Ganguly did not find a place in the 15-member squad despite the vacancy caused by the injury to fellow left-hander Yuvraj Singh. Ganguly was recently dropped from the one-day team in Pakistan after he had played in two Tests there. Pacemen Zaheer Khan and Ajit Agarkar and opener Gautam Gambhir were also dropped from the squad announced by Chief Selector Kiran More.
All-rounder Suresh Raina, who has done well in the ODIs, S Sreesanth and Mohd Kaif figure in the team.
The final squad is: Rahul Dravid (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Wasim Jaffer, WS Laxman, Mohd Kaif, Suresh Raina, Irfan Pathan, Anil Kumble, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, R P Singh, V R V Singh, Piyush Chawla, S Sreesanth .
More said the team was picked keeping the future of Indian cricket in mind. "I think we have done very well in one-dayers from which some new faces have emerged. The board has decided to give these youngsters a chance, it is a very important move for us," More said after a marathon meeting of the National Selection Committee here.
"It is not about just one Test, we are looking at the future. We also have the West Indies tour in mind."
Asked about Ganguly's exclusion, a slightly irritated More said, "We did not discuss only one individual. There are 15 players, why don't you ask about Dhoni who has performed very well."
The former wicketkeeper said the selectors had spoken to skipper Rahul Dravid who endorsed the selections. "We spoke to Dravid. He had some ideas and he said he was happy about die selection)," he said.
On why the meeting took so long, the chief selector said, "We also discussed the Pakistan tour and all the departments of our game." More'justified Gambhir's exclusion by citing his recent performances which have not been up to the mark.
"He has not performed well recently, so we decided to give Jaffer a chance. Sehwag and Jaffer will be the specialist openers, we will definitely give Jaffer a go (in the first Test)."
Chawla, one of the four new faces, was obviously rewarded for his outstanding performance in the recent Under-19 World Cup in Colombo .
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