Squad for first Test to be announced on Saturday

The national selectors have an easy job to do except for choosing a stumper when they meet on Saturday to pick the 14-member Indian squad.

The national selectors have a relatively easy job to do except for choosing a stumper when they meet on February 26, 2005 to pick the 14-member Indian squad to face Pakistan in the first cricket Test beginning in Mohali on March 8.

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The committee, headed by former India stumper Kiran More, would also finalise the Board President's XI that will play a warm-up match against the visitors at Dharamshala from March 3-5.

The choice of players for the wicketkeeping slot include former India wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel, East Zone's Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who did duty during the ODIs in Bangladesh and South Zone's Dinesh Kaarthick.

Both Dhoni and Patel come on the back of impressive performances in the domestic season in the Challenger Series, Deodhar Trophy one-day tournament and the on-going Duleep Trophy tournament.

The hard hitting Dhoni has proved that he can be a very useful batsman low down the order even in the longer version of the game while Patel, who had already got enough chances to prove himself, has not only fine tuned his skills but has also chipped in with useful scores.

Kaarthick, meanwhile, has been quite impressive behind the stumps but has not contributed much with the bat which may go against him.

The opening slots should be filled by the Delhi duo of Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir though in-form Baroda batsman Satyajit Parab's name may come up for discussion because of his consistent performance.

The experience of VVS Laxman should fetch him a slot in the middle order with Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and skipper Sourav Ganguly being certainties. Mohammad Kaif or Yuvraj Singh may get a look in depending on how many batsmen the Indian think-tank decides to pick on the bowler-friendly wicket in Mohali.

The four seamers - Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan, L Balaji and Ashish Nehra - who all have recoverd from all kind of niggles pick themselves while champion leg spinner Anil Kumble and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, who has been reportedly cleared of suspect bowling action by the International Cricket Council (ICC), will be the automatic choice for the two berth for spinners.

Counting themselves unlucky would be left-arm spinner Murali Kartik and Mumbai off-spinner Ramesh Powar, who has emerged as a true contender for place in the national squad.

The Pakistanis will be playing three Test matches and six one-dayers during their 50-day tour.