The national selectors may opt for five pace bowlers and Rahul Dravid as wicket-keeper when they meet in Chennai on Wednesdayto pick the Indian squad for the Asia Cup beginning in Sri Lanka on July 16.
The necessity to take five fast bowlers for the tour would be the main discussion at the selection committee meeting, according to sources. The team will be selected after the 20 probables, who will be split into two groups, play a limited over match to enable the selectors to judge the players' form.
According to sources, the axe would fall on batsmen Hemang Badani and Rohan Gavaskar and spinners Murali Kartik and Ramesh Powar along with Amit Bhandari.
Another probability is that selectors would look to strengthen the batting by picking another batsman (either Badani or Gavaskar) in place of Patel.
The thinking is that Colombo is so near that Patel could be summoned in case of an emergency.
The sources said if the committee decides against taking two wicket-keepers they will go in for an extra batsman (either Badani or Gavaskar) or an all rounder in Powar. Others to pick themselves apart from skipper Sourav Ganguly would be Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, V V S Laxman, Yuvraj Singh and Mohammed Kaif.
The possible fifteen for the tour would be: Sourav Ganguly (captain), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Mohammed Kaif, Yuvraj Singh, Parthiv Patel (or Hemang Badani or Rohan Gavaskar), Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Ajit Agarkar, L Balaji and Irfan Pathan.
