Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh are certain to make the grade. The Pathan brothers — Irfan and Yusuf — have been firing for their respective sides, while Rohit Sharma’s success for the Deccan Chargers highlights his case as well. Dinesh Karthik, who reinforced his claim with a 30-ball 41 in Delhi’s win on Thursday, is the front-runner for the second wicketkeeping slot ahead of Parthiv Patel and Robin Uthappa.

In the bowling department, Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma will definitely continue as India’s frontline pacemen, with one of the IPL’s highest wicket-takers, RP Singh, looking set to make a comeback. Harbhajan Singh and Pragyan Ohja, too, almost seem to have cemented their places with the show in South Africa so far.

But there are a host of contenders for the 15th and final spot in the team. Ravindra Jadeja has been part of the T20 scheme in recent times, while L Balaji, Praveen Kumar and Munaf Patel are strong seam options despite being a little off their best in the tournament so far. According to sources, however, the selectors are searching for another seam-bowling all-rounder who will also justify the IPL as a genuine platform for selection.

And that has put the spotlight firmly on Abhishek Nayar, the Mumbai left-hand batsman and right-arm seamer. Nayar, who blasted Andrew Flintoff for 22 runs in an over to start off his IPL campaign will have one more chance — when Mumbai Indians take on Kolkata Knight Riders in East London on May 1 — to impress the selectors before the squad is named. “I have always fancied myself as an all-rounder. It’s good to be in the running for a place in the Indian team,” he said. “You do think about your prospects from time to time, and I was thrilled to be part of the probables. But I don’t want to think about anything other than the next game at the moment,” Nayar said.

Things are looking pretty straightforward two days ahead of selection, but a couple of surprises can never be ruled out when the five wise men start their discussions on Saturday.