Left-arm fast bowlers Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan have passed fitness tests and have been included in the 16-man Indian squad for the three-Test series in South Africa starting on November 3. Also included in the squad are left-handed opener Connor Williams and wicketkeeper Sameer Dighe. Four players currently in South Africa for the one-day tri-series will return to India after the end of the tournament -- middle-order batsman Jacob Martin, allrounders Reetinder Sodhi and Yuvraj Singh, plus fast bowler Harvinder Singh. The selection committee retained Deep Dasgupta, who has been keeping wickets in the one-day matches. Explaining the rationale for including two wicketkeepers, Chandu Borde, chairman of selection committee, said: "The team will play five matches in South Africa. It will be tiring for one man to keep wickets in all the games." He defended Dasgupta's performance in the one-day tournament and said that he was being groomed for the future. Nayan Mongia and Ajay Ratra were the other wicketkeepers "considered by the committee".

Borde remained elusive about Mongia's exclusion from the squad and only stated that there were no specific requests from the team management to keep him out. When it was pointed out to him that Mongia had performed well with the bat on the previous tour to South Africa (he scored 21 and 50 as an opener in the third Test in Johannesburg in 1996-97), Borde simply said: "We did not discuss those points."

On the decision to select only two specialist openers, Borde said: "I had a discussion with skipper Sourav Ganguly, and if the need arises Rahul Dravid will be asked to open." He suggested that Williams' performance in the Irani Trophy match, where he scored 143 and 83 for Baroda against the Rest of India, and also his consistency throughout the domestic season last year helped him edge out Wasim Jaffer. "The fact that he is left-handed is also an advantage."

He defended the inclusion of five fast bowlers in the squad. "The selection committee and the team management felt that the wickets for the Tests would be conducive to seam bowling." He explained that Prasad's experience of South African conditions helped him retain his place in the squad. Prasad's lacklustre performance in the one-day matches so far had raised question marks about his inclusion for the Tests.

Also, injuries to some of the key bowlers in the recent past had clearly weighed on the selectors' minds. "Recently the fast bowlers have suffered a few injuries," said Borde. The team management will decide who is 100 percent fit, before finalising the eleven. We don't want to take any chances."

The squad in full
Batsmen
Shiv Sunder Das (Age 23, Tests 11)
Connor Williams (28, 0)
VVS Laxman (26, 24)
Sachin Tendulkar (28, 84)
Sourav Ganguly (capt) (29, 46)
Rahul Dravid (28, 48)
Virender Sehwag (23, 0)

Wicketkeepers
Sameer Dighe (33, 6)
Deep Dasgupta (23, 0)

Spinners
Harbhajan Singh (21, 16)
Anil Kumble (31, 61)

Seamers
Ajit Agarkar (23, 10)
Zaheer Khan (23, 8)
Javagal Srinath (32, 53)
Venkatesh Prasad (31, 33)
Ashish Nehra (22, 3)

S Rajesh is a sub-editor with Wisden.com India.

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