MUMBAI: Never in the last few years have the Indian selectors made such large-scale changes, moving from the incumbent limited-overs team to pick the Test squad for a new series, as they have done while finalizing a list of 15 players for the first two matches against Sri Lanka.

In a horses-for-courses approach that has been accepted all over, there are always marginal changes in teams selected for the two different versions of the game, but such a huge overhaul has rarely been seen.

It is difficult to fathom the rationale behind the national selection committee slashing almost half the ODI side in the name of Test cricket. Is it due to the fact that India is at the moment enjoying an embarrassment of riches? Or is it a kind of punishment for those who did not quite deliver in the series against Australia? Whatever it may be, the move does not augur well for the future of the new emerging players.

From the squad that played seven ODI matches against Australia, six players, batsmen Suresh Raina and Virat Kohli, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and pace bowlers Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel and Praveen Kumar have been axed. It is understandable that Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman had to come in, hence the omission of Raina and Kohli, both of whom otherwise performed well. But then what are the two Tamil Nadu batsmen Murali Ravi and S. Badrinath doing in the squad. Both have had their chances and

did not quite come up to scratch.

It has become some kind of a secret joke amongst other selectors that chairman K. Srikkanth will surely bring up the names of several players from Tamil Nadu so that he can at least get a couple of them in.

Ashish Nehra must be wondering what else he ought to do to remain in the Indian team. The left-arm seamer who returned to the team after a two-year hiatus due to an injury, did remarkably well. He now finds himself on the sidelines.

Now, it is the turn of the fit-again Zaheer Khan to make a comeback after a shoulder surgery. His place in the team is taken for granted, but the selectors have dropped a bombshell by including temperamental fast bowler S. Sreesanth. He has been given another chance to resurrect his stop-start career. Sreesanth, who last played for India in 2008, has had his share of injuries and criticism over attitude in equal measure. His disciplinary issues have been in both domestic and international cricket. He was recently issued a ‘final warning’ by the BCCI but he has been handed a chance to let his bowling correct his behavior.

One cannot but feel sorry for the young left-handed all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja. If anyone can be called a success in the recent ODI series, it was Jadeja, both with the bat and the ball.

At a time when India is desperately looking for a good all-rounder, one is surely anguished to see the fate of young talent like Irfan Pathan first and now Jadeja. The Indian selectors cannot have a quality all-rounder falling in their lap from above, they have to prospect for potential talent and allow it to blossom.

The squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Virendra Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhur, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, M. Vijay, Pragyan Ojha, S. Sreesanth and S. Badrinath.