The battle for Ganguly's place begins

There is a battle within a battle, though a friendly one, when the Indian batsmen take on England in the seven-match one-day series starting on November 14. Sourav Ganguly has vacated a middle-order spot in the Test team, and indications are that it will go to the man who makes the most of the opportunities in the one-dayers.

The Indian selectors have made it clear they will be guided by current form, even if it is in the shorter format, and the competition is between Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma and M Vijay. The first three can expect to be in the starting line-up on Friday, and the fourth is expected to get his chance at some point during the series.

The other contender, S Badrinath, was part of the India squad for the recent Australia Tests but did not play a match and, having lost his place in the ODI team for the first three matches against England, will hope that a recall later in the series will help him state his case once again. Then there's Virat Kohli, the Under-19 World Cup winning captain who, it is felt, is still some way away from the Test grade.

Yuvraj is a proven performer in the one-day arena but his stocks have depleted following a poor series in Sri Lanka; Raina has made an impressive comeback after a season in the sidelines; and Rohit, though not consistent enough at the highest level, has left no one in doubt about his pedigree. But it is the speed with which Vijay has moved from a Ranji Trophy double-century in Nasik to the Test XI in Nagpur and the one-day team that has added an intriguing turn to this race.

Apparently, the selectors are impressed by the assurance with which Vijay handled Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson in Nagpur, especially the time he seemed to have facing balls at 140kph. He has been highly recommended by Dav Whatmore, the India A coach, and he happens to be the only Test player in this group apart from Yuvraj.

Then there is Raina, who caught Greg Chappell's attention with a match-winning 81 against England in Faridabad two-and-a-half years ago, and has resurrected his career after a horror tour of South Africa in late 2006 that led to his banishment. His left-handedness is an advantage, and he is seen as a No. 6 Test batsman for his ability to absorb pressure and shift gears.

Rohit, meanwhile, is well on his way to becoming the complete batsman his batting prowess shows he can be. But then, after a convincing ODI debut in Australia early this year, he has struggled to string together more than two good scores in one sequence. Consider his recent scores in the Challenger Trophy: 2,117*, 1. If it was not for this bewildering lack of consistency, due to what some feel is a lack of focus at times, Rohit would have been the obvious choice to replace Ganguly. But not any longer, unless he finally starts to match the hype and immense potential with a string of consistent scores. And so, it's back to the queue.

Finally, Yuvraj. "What do we do with this boy?," a selector from the previous committee had once wondered aloud, shaking his head and shrugging his shoulders. "He has played for eight years, he has played in 23 Tests, but just when we think he is the man, he starts losing focus, or gets injured."

Yuvraj is currently going through an appalling run of poor form, which began during the ODI series in Sri Lanka where his sequence of scores read 23, 20, 12, 0, 17. Though he managed a second-innings century in the tour match against Australia, he slipped again in the Challenger Trophy, scoring 6, 3 and 8. He will come in to this series with a duck and 38 in the Ranji Trophy game against Delhi. He has also been battling injuries which have restricted his mobility in the field, and now faces one the biggest tests of his career.

As of now, Raina and Rohit are the front-runners for the job. But a lot could happen in the next three weeks.