Munaf walks into squad for Mohali

The same evening when BCCI president Sharad Pawar announced that neither any player, nor official would now speak on the Sourav Ganguly issu...

The same evening when BCCI president Sharad Pawar announced that neither any player, nor official would now speak on the Sourav Ganguly issue and that the controversy has come to an end once and for all, a cricket website posted the following quotes from chairman of selectors Kiran More: 8216;8216;There is no looking back. The committee will look beyond Ganguly now, even if he were to perform in domestic cricket.8217;8217;

The statement guarantees an end to Ganguly8217;s career, at least till the current selection committee is in place. Until then, More and his team are looking ahead at 8216;8216;youngsters8217;8217; who they think can fill into the Indian ranks with an eye on the future. Backing its statement in the right earnest, the committee included fast bowler Munaf Patel in the team for the second Test but at the expense of another youngster Vikram Rajvir VRV Singh.

As for VRV, who will be out of the team when India play England at his home ground in Mohali, More had a simple explanation to make: 8216;8216;We wanted to give VRV a taste of Test cricket and also assess his fitness. He has not played much, and we want him to go back to domestic cricket and play more games.8217;8217; Defending Munaf8217;s selection, More added: 8216;8216;Munaf has been in great form. He8217;s taken a lot of wickets in domestic cricket. He has also taken 10 wickets in the warm-up match against England.8221;

Also dropped from the side is Suresh Raina, who makes way for the in-form Yuvraj Singh, having recovered from the hamstring strain he suffered in the last ODI in Pakistan. 8216;8216;We have to pick Yuvraj. Suresh Raina is an outstanding player and will remain a part of the grooming process,8217;8217; More said.

The team for the first Test had been named on February 23, the day the warm-up game between Board President8217;s XI and England began at Baroda. VRV8212;who played that match8212;was included in the team because the bowler had been in contention for a Test slot when Sri Lanka visited India late last year. However, the Punjab speedster has been lying low due to minor injuries that have been troubling him.

The squad:Rahul Dravid captain,Virender Sehwag, Wasim Jaffer, Sachin Tendulkar, V V S Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Rudra Pratap Singh, S Sreesanth, Munaf Patel and Piyush Chawla.