A lightning flash

If the Indian team picked this afternoon lined up in a row - Usual Suspects style - Amit Mishra would be the Kevin Spacey character, the complete misfit. In a gallery of stars, he is the anonymous man - but one who might conceivably be an inspired selection. There are two very distinct schools of thought when it comes to his inclusion in the 14. The first suggests that he is a pick for the future - having taken wickets against Zimbabwe in a tour game a few months ago - and that being in the same squad as Anil Kumble, the country's premier legspinner, will help him to further hone his craft. The second view is more interesting, if you're the sort that enjoys conspiracy theories.

Cast your mind back 14 summers to the Chennai Test match against West Indies and a virtual unknown named Narendra Hirwani decimating what was then easily the most formidable team in the world - Viv Richards growling, "One swallow doesn't a summer make" afterwards (with great prescience as it turned out, when you consider Hirwani's plummeting career graph). There is a feeling that the selectors might intend for Mishra to be a similar lightning flash, especially against a team packed with left-handers and missing Brian Lara.

There are certainly similarities in the way he bowls. Mishra is neat and organised, a tad conservative in his approach and not one to experiment drastically with length and flight. On a day when the Board President's XI bowled like pie throwers or Poms (if you would believe Dennis Lillee), Mishra was the lone glow of light, albeit a faint one. As one Test contender after another bowled themselves out of contention (Tinu Yohannan started things off, and Sarandeep Singh and Murali Kartik followed suit) with ghastly exhibitions of their inadequacies, the selectors were left with an easy task.

By and large, they didn't have to tax themselves too much, the bulk of the team having coalesced into some sort of winning shape in England. Wasim Jaffer makes way, though Shiv Sundar Das is unlikely to break up the current opening combination of Virender Sehwag and Sanjay Bangar. If you think back to his inside-edged displays against Mervyn Dillon in the West Indies, it's easy to see why.

Parthiv Patel's selection at the expense of Ajay Ratra is another clear indication of how the powers-that-be rank India's brightest young wicketkeeping talents. It will be interesting to see though how the diminutive Patel fares against fast bowlers that make him look like Gulliver in the land of giants.

The omission of Ajit Agarkar may raise an eyebrow or two among his loyal cheering squad in Mumbai but India clearly don't feel the need for lower-order batting back-up in home conditions. As a bowler, his primary job lest people forget, he has been eminently forgettable and neither he nor Yohannan can complain about the cold touch on the shoulder.

Javagal Srinath's inclusion comes at the captain's behest, though questions about his heart - of lack of it - will continue to cause discomfiture to everyone concerned. When Kim Hughes packed it in as Australian captain nearly two decades ago, he became almost a pariah in their cricket circles, perhaps deservedly so. Srinath may still be among the best two or three fast bowlers in the country, but his admission of a lack of desire just a few months ago should have shut the door on his career for posterity. Can you even imagine Steve Waugh requesting someone like that to return to his fold? The words, touch (not) and bargepole come to mind.