A place for Mr Ganguly!

By John Cheeran
It would be only in the fitness of things if Yuvraj Singh teams up with Virender Sehwag to open Indian innings in the Chennai Test against Sri Lanka.
Yuvraj Singh is the man in form. The way the young left-hander has handled the recent crisis situations – first, coming out winner in his own battle for survival and later by mastering South African pace battery when it mattered most.
Yuvraj's superlative batting and scintillating fielding leave skipper Rahul Dravid and coach Greg Chappell with no choice but to play him in the Chennai Test.
That brings another question -- where to place him in the batting order.
If I were to put together the Indian XI for the Chennai Test I will have no hesitation in scribbling out these names -- Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble and Irfan Pathan.
That leaves only two slots for debate. I would pick two bowlers to fill these two places so that India will not be stretched to their limits to hustle out Sri Lankans to force a decisive win.
RP Singh did bowl reasonably well and it will not be a bad idea to pick the youngster ahead of Ajit Agarkar to partner Pathan with the new ball since selectors have not given the team management the option of Zaheer Khan.
That leaves only one spot open. We have five specialist batsmen plus Dhoni who has earned his place as a batsman-wicketkeeper.
The bowling department reads as Pathan, RP Singh, Harbhajan and Kumble. Here I fear that department is one man short. Now the question is should I go for a specialist opener for the sake of it and bring in Gautam Gambhir and there by deplete the bowling?
I would prefer to have an all rounder who can come in purely on the basis of his bowling. My vote will go for Agarkar since I believe Sourav Ganguly is yet to prove himself as a medium pacer.
That brings us the opening question...
Who will partner Sehwag?Yuvraj Singh is fearless and can handle new ball with aplomb. It shouldn't shock us that Yuvraj made his first class debut as an opener though he was out for a duck in that venture. Pushing Yuvraj to opener's slot should fit in with Chappell's floating philosophy.
Given a choice between being the 12th man and an opener, I'm quite sure that Yuvraj would grab the chance to open a new chapter in his formative career with both hands.
Thus my team for the Chennai Test reads:
Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, MSDhoni, Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh and RP Singh.
12 the man: Sourav Ganguly