On April 12, BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah shot an official letter to the chairman of selectors, Dilip Vengsarkar, asking him not to include Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly in the three one-day internationals to be played against Bangladesh next month. Vengsarkar, following the Board’s directive, met the two batsmen in Ahmedabad and told them about the decision.

“There’s a hectic season ahead and lot of matches are coming up. There’s a decision to rest you for the one-day series against Bangladesh,” he is said to have told Tendulkar.

So the script was already written and rehearsed when the selectors met today to pick the team for Bangladesh.

At the end of a two-hour meeting, they announced a “young” team, “resting” Tendulkar and Ganguly for one-day internationals. While that’s not new for former captain Gangly, it’s the first time in his 17-year international career that Tendulkar has not been picked for the Indian team while he’s fit and available.

The team for ODIs has only one new face: Bengal’s dashing batsman Manoj Tiwari. The other youngster, leggie Piyush Chawla, has already played for the country in Tests.

While Virender Sehwag was retained for ODIs, he was dropped from the Test team. Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan and Ajit Agarkar were dropped from both Test and ODI sides. The only new face in the Test team is Baroda left-arm spinner Rajesh Pawar.

“Harbhajan and Irfan Pathan were dropped from the team because of non-performance,” Vengsarkar said.

Consistent backing of the captain, Rahul Dravid, ensured a place for Sehwag in the one-day side while the new manager-cum-coach Ravi Shastri brought in Dinesh Mongia, the “fighting Punjabi.”

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