Agarkar left out of West Indies Test squad

Continuing with their policy of blooding youngsters, the Board of Control for Cricket in India's selectors on Wednesday named V R V Singh and Suresh Raina in a 16-member squad for next month's four-Test series against the West Indies.

As expected, Veterans Anil Kumble and VVS Laxman were included in the squad, while Mumbai pace ace Ajit Agarkar was surprisingly omitted despite being the most impressive of India's bowlers in the ongoing one-day international series in the West Indies.

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Off-spinner Ramesh Powar, who awarded a berth in the Test squad for the first time, will stay on.

The selectors also picked Dinesh Kaarthick as the second wicketkeeper, ahead of Parthiv Patel, who was rewarded with the vice-captaincy of the India 'A' team that will tour Australia.

Raina found a place in the team largely because of the void left vacant by Sachin Tendulkar, who on Tuesday day decided to opt out of the tour after failing to recover fully from a shoulder injury.

The squad announced by BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah had no place for former captain Sourav Ganguly, who is in the cold since the tour of Pakistan in January-February this year.

Also failing to find favour with the selectors was left-arm speedster Zaheer Khan, who has been impressive in his county stint for Worcestershire.

The selectors had a telephonic conversation with captain Rahul Dravid, coach Greg Chappell and co-selector Ranjib Biswal before naming the squad.

Explaining the logic behind picking untested VRV Singh ahead of Agarkar, selection committee chairman Kiran More said the Punjab bowler was chosen with an eye on the future.

"V R V Singh was selected as we wanted to groom him for the future. He has done well in domestic cricket and also bowled well for India 'A' in Abu Dhabi, except in the final (against Pakistan)," More said.

"Also, we consider Agarkar as a fine one-day cricketer whose Test record is not that impressive. He's done extremely well in the one-day matches in the West Indies and we are happy for him," the former India stumper explained.

More was referring to Agarkar's poor Test record of 58 wickets in 26 matches, at a costly average of 47.32 per wicket, compared to his impressive one-day haul of 249 wickets in 162 matches, at just over 27 per wicket.

"Also, in Karachi (against Pakistan in January) on a seaming wicket, Agarkar was not considered for selection," More pointed out, adding he is not completely out of Test reckoning.

The selectors also named the India 'A' team for the Top End series in Australia in June-July. Venugopala Rao will lead the team.

The teams:

Test team for West Indies series: Rahul Dravid (capt), Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Mohd Kaif, Wasim Jaffer, Suresh Raina, M S Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, Irfan Pathan, S Sreesanth, Munaf Patel, V R V Singh, Ramesh Powar and Dinesh Kaarthick.

India 'A' team for Australia: Venugopala Rao (capt), Parthiv Patel (vice capt, wk); Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, Rohit Sharma, S Badrinath, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, T P Singh, Piyush Chawla, Setheshwar Pujara, R P Singh, S S Paul, Rajendra Jadeja and Sidharth Trivedi.