Bangalore: An angry Leander Paes on Thursday lashed out at non-playing captain Mahesh Bhupathi, accusing him of flouting the selection criteria after being dropped from India's Davis Cup squad for the tie against Uzbekistan.

Paes hinted that his bitter relationship with Bhupathi may have been a factor in his omission.

It was Rohan Bopanna who made the cut, despite Paes winning a Challenger title in Mexico only a few days back.

Bopanna will pair up with Sriram Balaji in the second round doubles tie and lock horns with Farrukh Dustov and Sanjar Fayziev at the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association.

Ramkumar Ramanathan will spearhead India's singles challenge in place of the injured Yuki Bhambri. Ramanathan will face Temur Ismailov in the first singles rubber on Friday.

Prajnesh Gunneswaran, who replaced the injured Bhambri, will take on Fayziev in the second singles rubber. In the reverse singles on Sunday, Ramanathan is likely to face Fayziev and Gunneswaran will be playing the final rubber against Ismailov.

"When I got here yesterday (Wednesday) morning for practice, I was hitting and feeling the ball very well. The criteria was supposed to be form, which obviously doesn't seem to be the case. The selection criteria seems to fluctuate a lot," a miffed Paes told reporters here.

While agreeing that Bhupathi has a right to chose his team, Paes advised him not to let personal bias colour his decision.

"At one time, it is based on rankings and other times it's based on likes and personal preferences. Sometimes it's not on personal preferences, it is based on who plays deuce court and who plays on ad court.

"And now it is based on form. On form, you guys know better who has played better," a fuming Paes added.

Bhupathi said it was a tough decision to drop his one-time doubles partner. "It was tough and that is why the last-minute decision.

"I was clear from the start that I wanted to go with three singles options only because the couple of boys have never played under Davis Cup stress situation, so going in with two (doubles) specialists was going to be a high-risk situation," he said.

Bhupathi said the other players in the team had practised more than Paes.

"These boys have been here since Sunday, and we were able to play a lot of sets with Rohan and Bala. They played three sets everyday. Leander, unfortunately, came only yesterday (Wednesday) and he played three games and it started raining. So, there wasn't Davis Cup doubles highest stress situations," he said.

Asked if Paes stood a chance had he joined earlier, Bhupathi said: "If I had the full team by Sunday and Monday, I would have had more time probably to make a dedicated decision."

When asked if it was end of the road for Paes, Bhupathi responded in the negative.

"Not at all, I made it clear to everyone involved, including Leander, that this is by no means the end of the road. His being in the team is invaluable, the experience, the energy he brings to Davis Cup ..." he said.