Sreesanth

Calcutta: Temperamental medium-pacer Sreesanth, who was recently “warned” by the Board and also given a “final warning” by his state association (Kerala), stands a strong outside chance of making a Team India comeback.

According to well-placed sources of The Telegraph, Sreesanth is in the running for the third/fourth medium-pacer’s berth, together with the experienced Munaf Patel and rookie Sudeep Tyagi.

“Right now, you could say Sreesanth has a strong outside chance of making the 15 for the first Test against Sri Lanka,” one of the sources said on Monday, on the eve of the selectors’ meeting in Mumbai.

The three-Test series begins in Ahmedabad on November 16.

Sreesanth’s last appearance for India was in the Kanpur Test against South Africa, 19 months ago. An injury in the closing stages of the inaugural IPL is what initially kept him away from the national team.

The warnings, by the way, had been for boorish on-field behaviour and not turning up for the state team’s practice.

Hopefully, Sreesanth (26) has got the message.

As was indicated in these columns on Sunday, Zaheer Khan will be making his Team India return.

He’s been off international cricket for close to five months, but was impressive on his first-class comeback last week.

While the first 11 picks itself, another source pointed out that much of the debate may be over who takes the slot earmarked for the reserve batsman. Murali Vijay and Rohit Sharma are the strongest contenders.

However, as Dinesh Karthik can open, bat in the middle-order and wear the big gloves, just in case captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has a fitness problem before the toss, he’s seen as the “dark horse”.

It won’t surprise if Pragyan Ojha is selected as the reserve spinner.

The vice-captaincy bit hasn’t been discussed by Krishnamachari Srikkanth and his colleagues (Yashpal Sharma, Narendra Hirwani, Surendra Bhave, Raja Venkat), but Virender Sehwag is their man.

In recent times, though, Sehwag has been sending conflicting signals on the issue.

But, then, he hasn’t put anything on record in any communication to the Board.

The certainties and those in the running

Certainties: Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, V.V.S. Laxman, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir; Mahendra Singh Dhoni; Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra; Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma.

Likely to complete the remaining places: Murali Vijay/Rohit Sharma; Pragyan Ojha; Two from among Munaf Patel, Sreesanth and Sudeep Tyagi.

Dark horse: Dinesh Karthik.