Pacers' places up for grabs

The selectors meet in Chennai on Friday to pick the squads for the New Zealand tour and, given fitness concerns and the conditions on tour, the bulk of their time should go in picking the pace department for the Tests. Two of the pace-bowling contenders were not fit when India last played international cricket - RP Singh didn't bowl in the second innings of the Ranji Trophy final last month because of a shoulder injury, and Munaf Patel had to leave the Sri Lanka tour midway because of a groin injury - which makes it surprising that the Test squad is being picked a month before that leg of the series.

The other injury concern, Harbhajan Singh, has made himself available and should walk into all three teams, but most questions surround the pace department.

The first question is, four or five? They took four fast bowlers to England in 2007, and five to Australia in 2007-08 (VRV Singh was added after Zaheer Khan's injury, making it six). Only two are automatic selections as of now - Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma. The pool for the other places is Munaf, RP, Sreesanth and L Balaji. Munaf, if fit, should be the automatic choice for the third slot, but there is also a school of thought that an out-and-out swing bowler might be given preference.

Sreesanth has proved his fitness through a Ranji Trophy match (seven wickets against Jharkhand), and two in the Duleep Trophy (eight wickets at 37.75). Balaji has made an inspirational comeback to playing cricket in the first place - after his stress fracture and the resultant surgery. His Ranji form took him to Sri Lanka as Munaf's replacement, but in the one game he played there it seemed he was not yet at his best.

source : cricinfo.com