(adds details, quotes, one-day squad)
CHENNAI, India, Nov 23 - Indian cricket selectors
on Wednesday retained sacked captain Saurav Ganguly for the
first test in next month's home series against Sri Lanka.
Ganguly had been the subject of intense speculation after he
was sacked as one-day captain last month following a prolonged
batting slump and a major row with coach Greg Chappell.
Rahul Dravid, who took over, was also appointed test captain
on Tuesday after his fine start in the one-day role.
Chief selector Kiran More said on Wednesday that Ganguly,
India's most successful test captain, had been chosen as a
batting all rounder in the 15-player squad.
"He definitely has to prove himself in the coming series
also," he told reporters.
Ganguly has taken only 25 wickets with his occasional
seamers from 84 tests. More said he was included only after a
lengthy debate among the five selectors.
The 33-year-old batsman had not made a test hundred since
December 2003 until he scored a laboured 101 in the first match
against Zimbabwe at Bulawayo in September, increasingly looking
shaky against short-pitched deliveries.
Ganguly's international future had looked bleak after he was
omitted from the one-day team which crushed Sri Lanka 6-1 at
home this month, ending its string of poor results.
A five-match one-day series against South Africa is tied 1-1
with two games left.
NEW STUMPER
The selectors also drafted in uncapped wicketkeeper Mahendra
Dhoni, rewarding the stocky player for his brilliant
contribution with the bat in recent one-dayers.
Dhoni, 24, who replaced youngster Dinesh Karthik, hit 183
not out during the Sri Lanka series, the highest one-day score
by a wicketkeeper. He scored 346 runs in four innings in that
series.
"Dhoni has taken us to a different level of cricket
altogether for one-dayers. He is a match-winner," More said.
They also picked uncapped 19-year-old paceman Rudra Pratap
Singh after his promising start in one-dayers, leaving out
senior fellow left-arm Zaheer Khan.
Although Khan spearheaded West Zone to victory in the
premier domestic Duleep Trophy tournament recently, there had
been media reports the team management was unhappy with his
attitude.
Sachin Tendulkar was back in the test squad after missing
the 2-0 sweep in Zimbabwe in September because of elbow surgery.
The three-test series starts in Chennai on December 2.
The selectors also named an unchanged squad for the last two
one-dayers against South Africa, to be played in Kolkata on
Friday and Mumbai on Monday.
The test squad:
India squad: Rahul Dravid (captain), Virender Sehwag, Sachin
Tendulkar, Vangipurappu Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Saurav Ganguly,
Mohammad Kaif, Mahendra Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Anil Kumble, Irfan
Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Ajit Agarkar, Rudra Pratap Singh,
Murali Kartik, Gautam Gambhir.
One-day squad:
Rahul Dravid (captain), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar,
Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Mohammad Kaif,
Mahendra Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, Jai Prakash Yadav, Harbhajan
Singh, Ajit Agarkar, Rudra Pratap Singh, S.Sreesanth, Murali
Kartik.