Ganguly's test begins before Australia series

A couple of years ago, Sourav Ganguly's comeback to international cricket was hailed as the best ever in Indian cricket.

Two years on, the southpaw is at the mercy of the new selection panel headed by former India captain Krishnamachari Srikkanth, who will be selecting the squad for the first two Tests against the Aussies, on Wednesday.

If the selectors decide to do away with the former Indian skipper, it would be very unfortunate, as that would be injustice to a man who has scored nearly 7000 Test runs, 1600-odd of them in the last 16 months, on the basis of just one bad series in Sri Lanka, where even the great Sachin Tendulkar performed miserably.

Former Indian opening batsman Anshuman Gaekwad, when asked about the ‘Fab Four’s' diminishing popularity during the Irani Cup match at Vadodara recently, wanted to know about the right replacements for the seniors.

"Every Tom, Dick and Harry wants these seniors replaced after just one failure but I don’t see any proper replacements as the youngsters in the running have proved themselves only in the shorter version of the game. To succeed in the longer version one needs grit and determination," Gaekwad had said.

However, there is strong speculation that Ganguly may call it quits if the new panel does not consider the ‘Prince of Kolkata’ for the first two Tests at Bangalore and Mohali.

With Dilip Vengsarkar ignoring Ganguly for the Irani Cup tie, it not only looked like that the curtains will come down on the best batter from Bengal but also was a warning bell to the 'Fab Four’.

With immense pressure and attention heaped on the five wise men less than a week after being appointed on India's first paid selectors, it would be of great interest to see who will replace one of the senior member of the ‘Team of the Nineties’.

An axe on Ganguly, who could muster less than 100 runs on the last Test series in Sri Lanka, would send a strong message to the other three star batsmen - Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and V V S Laxman - to perform or perish.

Will Srikkanth and co-selectors Yashpal Sharma, Narendra Hirwani, Surendra Bhave and Raja Venkat pull the rug on the career of Ganguly is the big question ahead of one of the most interesting selection panel meetings.

Ganguly, who staged a spectacular entry into Tests with a debut ton at Lord's in 1996, made a storming return to the five-day game in South Africa in late 2006 after losing his place earlier that year.