VRV Singh and Rajesh Pawar—with the latter yet to make his debut —have been omitted from the Test team that featured in Bangladesh while Dinesh Mongia and injured Manoj Tiwary are the other casualties in the ODI side as the BCCI selection committee that met in the capital selected separate squads that would do national duty for the ODI series in Ireland and the Test series in England.

Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar, who were rested for the ODI series last month, make a return.

On the brighter side, Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been rewarded for his recent good form by being made the vice captain for the one-dayers. In Tests, however, it will be the veteran Sachin Tendulkar who will be the vice-captain to Rahul Dravid, who has been retained captain for both series. Though “Dhoni’s performance has been noticed”, it was said that “this selection did not mean that he was being looked at as the future skipper.”

The committee also gave rookie middle order bat Rohit Sharma his first break by naming him in the one-day team while Bengal seamer Ranadeb Bose has also been awarded for his performance with a place in the Test side. Gautam Gambhir is in the Test side too as third opener.

THE SQUADS

One-dayers: Rahul Dravid (captain), MS Dhoni (vice-captain), Sourav Ganguly, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Kaarthick, Zaheer Khan, S Sreesanth, RP Singh, Ajit Agarkar, Piyush Chawla, Ramesh Powar, Robin Uthappa and Rohit Sharma.

Tests: Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar (vice-captain), Wasim Jaffer, Dinesh Kaarthick (specialist opener) , Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, Zaheer Khan, S Sreesanth, RP Singh, Anil Kumble, Ramesh Powar, Gautam Gambhir (third opener), Ishant Sharma and Ranadeb Bose.

... contd.