The five-member selection committee, along with the captain and the coach, deliberated for over two hours before giving out-of-form VVS Laxman another chance to strike the right note.
But they did not spare four others — Aakash Chopra, Yuvraj Singh, Parthiv Patel and Ajit Agarkar.
The bad news was that Irfan Pathan is still not fit and skipper Sourav Ganguly will have to undergo a fitness test on November 1.
Fresh faces replaced the four dropped from the team to play the Mumbai Test against the Australians beginning from November 3 — players who have never been picked for Tests.
The selectors surprisingly picked two openers in Delhi's dashing stroke-maker Gautam Gambhir and Maharashtra's Dheeraj Jadhav, who has been very consistent. Bengal seamer SS Paul replaces Ajit Agarkar and Dinesh Kaarthick gets into the team in place of Parthiv Patel.
While one was expecting Chopra, Patel and Agarkar to get the sack, the dropping of Yuvraj does come as a surprise.
Yuvraj is out of form, like most other batsmen, but his record and his immense potential should have been enough for him to have retained his spot in the middle order.