Ganguly picked for first two Tests

Sourav Ganguly's Test career received fresh lease of life with the newly-appointed national selection panel naming him in India's 15-member squad for the first two Tests against Australia starting from October 9.

Sourav Ganguly's Test career on Wednesday received fresh lease of life with the newly-appointed national selection panel naming him in India's 15-member squad for the first two Tests against Australia starting from October 9.

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Virtually ignoring the previous selection committee's stand on the elegant left-hander, the new team of selectors -- headed by former captain Krishnamachari Srikkanth -- included the 36-year-old Ganguly in the squad which also has Tamil Nadu batsman S Badrinath and Delhi leg-spinner Amit Mishra as the two new faces.

After being dropped from the Rest of India squad for the Irani Cup match, Ganguly's selection was a subject of intense speculation with rumours being rife that he might quit the game if omitted from the national side.

While Badrinath and Mishra got the selectors' nod, middle-order batsman Yuvraj Singh was ignored yet again for the longer version of the game.

Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Kaarthick and Pragyan Ojha, who figured in the Indian squad during the last Test series against Sri Lanka, were omitted from the team announced by new secretary S Srinvisan through a press release.

Immediately after the team was announced, there was speculation that Ganguly had been given the opportunity for an "honourable exit" but it could not be immediately confirmed whether the BCCI indeed had such plans.

The team: Anil Kumble (capt), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, R P Singh, S Badrinath, Amit Mishra.