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Ashish Nehra who?

When Ajit Wadekar took over as chairman of the selection committee, and the likes of Madan Lal, himself a former player and manager of the side, joined him, I was naive enough to imagine that the era of selectorial shockers was over.

This morning, I got to wake up and smell the coffee -- and along with the coffee, the fresh smell of the morning newspaper, which informed me that Srinath, suffering a case of sore shins, was going to be rested for the forthcoming Asian Test Championship game against Sri Lanka in Colombo.

"We don't want to risk injuring him more permanently, we need to have him in peak condition for the World Cup," board secretary J Y Lele said.

Very impressive, that, and no, I am not being sarcastic -- conserving the key players is something I've been advocating for quite a while. I did wonder, though, why the board was not similarly concerned about Tendulkar's fitness -- even in course of the ATC Test between India and Pakistan ending today, he twice went off the field for treatment to a bad back he has been carrying ever since the Madras Test.

But that is a secondary issue, what surprised me was the name of the replacement bowler. Ashish Mehra, a 21 year old left arm medium pacer from Delhi.

Now where did this guy come from? "He is a promising left arm seamer and we decided to try him out," Wadekar told the media.

In recent times, promising young lads have been tried out, and some have come good -- the names of Agarkar and Harbhajan spring immediately to mind. But there are a few questions that come to mind in this instance.

The side is, after all, playing in a three cornered Test championship, and presumably, there is in the minds of selectors and team management alike some thought of winning.

Granting that Srinath needs a rest, would it then not make more sense to go to Sri Lanka with a replacement more used to the rough and tumble of high pressure Tests? The Indian selectors figured a while earlier that the likes of Dodda Ganesh and Debashish Mohanty are good enough to find place in the World Cup probables (Mehra incidentally does not) -- so if a replacement were required, would either of those not be the more logical choice? Wouldn't either Mohanty or Ganesh, at least one of whom will definitely go to England later this year, benefit from spending some time with the team, and getting their feet wet yet again in high pressure cricket?

Let's look at the tournament situation here. Sri Lanka is playing its first game. India has played one, lost one, and earned just 5 bonus points for its efforts.

There are 20 points to play for in game two. With one of its two strike bowlers taken out of the equation, India's chances of collecting the 12 points for a win have come down appreciably.

The Lankan strategy is pretty predictable -- they will have the gaining of more bonus points than India as their first priority, so that in the event of a loss to Pakistan, Lanka will still go through to the final with the higher bonus points to its name.

How can they do this? Pretty simple, really -- prepare the kind of flat track that saw Lanka, the last time India toured there, pile up that world record total.

True, Jayasuriya is not around and neither is Mahanama -- the two players who shared that mammoth partnership. However, players like Atapattu, Ranatunga and Aravinda are perfectly capable of moving things along at 3.5 an over, which gets them, as per the rules, four batting bonus points assuming they get to a total of 350.

On a flat batting track, with Srinath out of the attack and Kumble's threat negated, they would be odds on to accomplish that objective.

Come India's turn to bat, the Lankan gameplan is equally predictable -- with an attack missing a few dentures, with Muralitharan away, you can bet your bottom dollar that Ranatunga, who always has his eye on the main chance, will look to slow things down. A packed leg side field, bowlers going round the wicket pitching leg or just outside to deny runs and frustrate the batsmen, will be the route they go.

It has two obvious advantages -- the Indian batsmen in their chase for bonus points will be hampered by the field and the line of attack. And attempting to hit their way out of the trap will cause wickets to fall, as it has on an earlier occasion. Three wickets fall, Lanka are richer by one point, five, and it is two points, seven, and it is three...

It would be interesting to know if the Indian think tank will, now that the first Test is over and done with, get down to examining the scenario and coming up with gameplans to counter what could be waiting for them in Lanka -- but then, it is not much use asking either the coach, or the captain, the former says he is not permitted to talk (strange proscription that, since he is obviously allowed to write in the media) while the latter says, yes, we have put the defeat to Pakistan behind us and are looking forward to the next game, which is what the media has been getting out of Gaekwad for the last few months, from Zimbabwe through New Zealand and then the 'Friendship Series' and now this first game of the ATC.

However, if only as a mental exercise, it might be interesting to speculate on possible Indian tactics for the upcoming tournament.

To my mind, the way to go would be to pack the side with bowlers. My team would be (and remember we are going by the announced list of 14), Ramesh, Laxmi Shukla (who is a hard hitting batsman and, according to Ganguly who decided to up him into the opener's slot, extremely aggressive by nature), Dravid, Sachin, Ganguly, Azhar, Mongia, Kanitkar, Kumble, Joshi, and Prasad with Harbajan as 12th man.

That team gives me Prasad and Shukla to open the bowling, with Ganguly to bowl a few tight seam up overs as required. Kanitkar would be the stock spinner, since his forte is a tight wicket to wicket line (Harbajan, the regular offie, wouldnt be much of a threat to the Lankans and on a flat track, could prove too expensive to afford). Joshi's left arm spin can be used either to attack, or if needed, to hold the leg stump line with a leg side field, and choke the flow of runs. And Kumble would revert to his forte -- flattish, fullish, bang on middle and off, with an offside field packed to stop runs.

Batting-wise, Ramesh, Dravid, Ganguly, Sachin, Azhar and Kanitkar, with Shukla, Mongia, Kumble and Joshi in support have more than enough to take on a weak Lankan attack, so it makes sense to rest Laxman and go in with the additional bowler, slotting him into the top of the order.

The gameplan? Simple -- bat first if you win the toss. And at every stage of the game, concentrate on the bonus points. A good thing to keep in mind will be past history -- India, on its last tour, rattled up 500+, losing wickets in the process, but trying to declare and go for a win. Lanka simply shut things down and batted on and on -- and given its team composition, it will do so again. It makes sense, then, to shut the door on the Lankans here -- if at some stage in the game a clear winning chance does present itself, time enough to go flat out then.

Do unto others before they do unto you, and do it good, would seem to be a good motto to tie to, here.