I always hold the view that the match  against  Australia is never the time to experiment with the team composition and you must field the best team  whenever you play them. A win against Australia gives that additional adrenal rush in the team  much needed  to keep the morale and confidence high  for the  team to ride  in subsequent  future matches . You can subsequently field the juniors when that momentum is picked up . You cannot forget the fact that the team  just had a disastrous test series in SriLanka. It is time to revive the winning spirit . Australia team is deadlier this time since they are now backed by the experience of the assistant coach Greg Chapel  who knows the strength and weaknesses of the entire Indian team like the back of his palm. The Australian team also has a few inexperienced youngsters and knowing the psyche of the Australians , they are definitely going to be the dark horses since they are dying to prove themselves in the competitive Aussie’s Cricket and  we do not have much idea about their games whereas  Guru Greg knows all our players !
This is the time the so called  fab four  are very much needed. However ,  I think Ganguly  has a  very remote chance of getting a call back due to the following reasons ( mostly non cricketing ones):

1.The new chairman of the selection committee Kris Srikkanth and the new Secretary of the BCCI Mr N Srinivasan will definitely opt for Badrinath over Ganguly  going by the current   thought of  raising the youngsters.

2.Dalmiya is unlikely to raise noise over Ganguly’s omission given that Ganguly has burnt the bridge with him.

3. The left brigade from West Bengal  in the Parliament may not succeed in  influencing their colleague Sharad Pawar  this time since they have burnt the bridge too with the Congress !

4.Ganguly is such a player with the best ever charisma enjoyed by any cricketer in India ( may be just after Sachin)  that if you  don’t include him in the team , you witness  vehement  criticism all around  and  if you include him in the team , then also you are criticized. This is because ,  no one in the history of cricket has made as many successful comebacks as Ganguly  and as many controversies  as Ganguly has done . He shows his best when under attack ! He is so unpredictable  besides  being  so enigmatic .  A decision on Ganguly will always be controversial  whichever way it is. Since Ganguly was omitted in the Irani Trophy by the previous selection committee , the new selection committee will find a novel escape route to get rid of this player passing the blame  on to the previous selection committee.

5. Bengal’s cricket aspirations are now centering around another two new young and successful  cricketers namely  Ashok Dinda and Manoj Tiwari  against the only one i.e. Sourav Ganguly till sometime back. So dropping Sourav from the team will not create so much of an upheaval in Bengal now. Besides , by openly indulging against a very successful cricket administrator Jagmohan Dalmiya who has contributed tremendously  to Bengal cricket  Sourav earned the wrath of many Bengal cricket lovers.

Having said so and having played the game quite extensively at college level , from my limited understanding , let me tell you why Sourav is needed in the team against Australia.

1.You need experience against the likes of Ricky Ponting and Greg . Besides , you can not forget to be aggressive  against  their sledging  without losing your cool . Sourav who is an icon  in handling such situation and who is feared by the Australian team especially with both Ponting and Greg having a tough time being with him  can provide great support  to Kumble to win against the Australian team  first in the mental game.

2. You need shrewd tactical skill against the Aussie’s who  marvel in changing the pattern of the game  continuously . You would remember how  Greg Chapel  used to change the compositions or fielding/batting orders to surprise the opponents  while he was coaching team India . In this matter Sourav can be a good advisor to Kumble on field and they have brilliant chemistry  between them.

3. You are batting against the likes of Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson and you cannot forget  the fact that Ganguly only recently received the best test batsman of the year 2007 award . He just had a bad series in SriLanka and so did the other fab  three. Why axe Ganguly then ? He deserves another chance.

4.Home ground and being under pressure are the two ideal situation  for  Ganguly to fire . Should the selectors ignore this fact ?

5. Ranjiv Biswal as a representative from the east zone in the previous selection committee  was not very vocal and was in the category  of filling in the quorum . He was not successful as far as the cricketing interest of the east zone goes . Also being from Orissa  he did not have any great love for Sourav. However Raja Venkat , an old war horse from Bengal will definitely  try his best to prove his mettle and will not lose the opportunity to become a darling of Bengal by ensuring Sourav’s recall.

6.Sourav could be considered against  inclusion of VVS Lakshman or in place of a fifth bowler   as a batsman who can also bowl a few overs  given that all other  slots are filled with almost certain players.

7.The cricketer’s agreement with the Board is also falling due soon . One cannot forget the fact that if Sourav decides to join the ICL  and manages  the current Government in power in Bengal to  endorse  it , given the popularity of Sourav , IPL will face serious difficulty to succeed.After all only  a few teams  ( besides the BCCI of course ! ) could make money last time in the much talked about IPL series. I am sure , the Board will seriously take this into cognizance.
The team is being picked up by the new selection committee  tomorrow . It is their first assignment since coming to power . It would be interesting to watch. Cricket  after all is a game of uncertainty !