Challenger Trophy teams

Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag will lead the three teams in the N K P Salve Challenger Trophy cricket tournament to be held in Mumbai from February 7 to 10.

Ganguly will lead the India Seniors while Dravid and Sehwag will lead India A and B respectively, BCCI joint-secretary Gautam Dasgupta announced in Kolkata on Thursday after the teams were picked by the national selectors, headed by chief selector Kiran More.

Indian Under-19 skipper and talented middle order bat Ambati T Rayudu found a place in the 12-member India 'B' side, while openers Shikhar Dhawan and Robin Uthappa were included in the India Senior and India 'A' teams respectively.

All the established players figure in the teams save batting genius Sachin Tendulkar, who is still recovering from an elbow injury, and offie Harbhajan Singh, who would be away in Australia during the tourney to work with a biomechanics expert on his suspect bowling action.

Medium pacer Laxmipathy Balaji, who was included in the Seniors' squad, makes a return to competitive cricket after a long injury-induced lay-off.

An interesting inclusion in the India 'A' squad is Baroda pacer and Irfan Pathan's elder brother, Yousuf Pathan.

Selection committee chairman Kiran More later said the selectors laid stress on spinners and all-rounders while finalising the teams.

Asked why former India all-rounder Ajay Jadeja was kept out of the squads despite good performances in the Ranji Trophy, Dasgupta's cryptic reply was, "The selectors did not consider him."

Dasgupta said Bengal new-ball bowler Ranadeb Bose's name was discussed during the meeting, but he could not make it to the squads, which already had several medium pacers.

The teams:

India Seniors: Sourav Ganguly (capt), M S Dhoni (wicket-keeper), Yuvraj Singh, S. Raina, Venugopal Rao, Neeraj Patel, Anil Kumble, Irfan Pathan, L Balaji, Gagandeep Singh, Rajesh Powar and Shikhar Dhawan.

India A: Rahul Dravid (capt), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), S S Parab, Dheeraj Jadhav, Mohammad Kaif, Dinesh Mongia, Murali Kartik, Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, R P Singh, Yusuf Pathan and Robin Uthappa.

India B: Virender Sehwag (capt), Parthiv Patel (wicket-keeper), Gautam Gambhir, V V S Laxman, S Sriram, Rohan Gavaskar, Romesh Powar, Joginder Sharma, Ashish Nehra, S S Paul, Amit Bhandari and A T Rayudu.