New Delhi, December 14
Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly was dealt a numbing blow today when the senior selection committee replaced him with Wasim Jaffar of Mumbai for the third Test, starting in Ahmedabad on December 18.

The selection committee, headed by Kiran More, apparently did not take heed of the 40 and 39 runs he scored in the second Test against Sri Lanka. And despite being inducted as an “all-rounder”, he was not given a chance to bowl either, though Sachin Tendulkar got one over to chance his arm. Thus Ganguly finds himself out of Team India for no apparent reason this time around while Gautam Gambhir, who scored three and two against Sri Lanka at the Kotla ground, has been retained.

Ironically, captain Rahul Dravid had praised Ganguly’s knocks at a media conference immediately after the Test triumph.

Dravid has been retained as captain for the forthcoming tour of the Indian team to Pakistan as well as the England team’s tour of India after that.

But Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Secretary Niranjan Shah and Chairman of the Selection Committee Kiran More kept dead-pan faces when they announced that Ganguly was dropped to bring in Wasim Jaffer.

Perhaps, Ganguly’s case was spoilt by the success of Yuvraj Singh with the bat in the second innings as according to More, the selection committee felt that Yuvraj was “doing well at the number six position and it would not be fair to drop him”. And it would not be fair to keep Ganguly in the reserve bench either and hence the sack, argued More.

The chairman, himself a former stumper, also hinted that Ganguly may not find a berth for the Pakistan tour either, though hastening to add that, “The door is not closed on him”. Answering another question, More said Dravid and coach Greg Chappell attended the selection committee meeting, but parried Dravid’s praise of Ganguly as “his view”.

On the logic of persisting with Gambhir, More said “Gambhir is a young player with a lot of potential. We are thinking in a long-term perspective, with an eye on the Pakistan series, though his poor form remains a concern”.

More said Jaffar has been rewarded for “playing well in domestic cricket, and he has some (international) experience too”.

At hindsight, there seemed to be a method in the whole gameplan for the second Test as the “throat infection” of Virender Sehwag was used to create a “vacuum” in the opening slot which was filled in with make-shift openers Rahul Dravid and Irfan Pathan so that Jaffar’s case could be strengthened even if Gambhir had not failed. For, had Sehwag opened with Gambhir, and both the Delhi openers failed to get big scores, it would have been difficult to plead the case of Gambhir. And Ganguly has been sacrificed by keeping an eye on the “future”.