Good Start

It's tea time at the India v/s Pak A match and looks like the top 3 batsman have got a good workout.

The selection of the squad is interesting - Ganguly, Sehwag, Kumble and Parthiv left out. I think the onus is to give match practice to those players who did not play much in the recent Ranji matches.

Jaffer and Gambhir both made healthy scores. It will be a tough one to chose between the two. I think Gambhir will pip Jaffer as he has not done too bad at the opening slot except the SL Test series. In either case, such a healthy competition bodes well for the team.

It will be interesting to see how Bhajji and the fast bowlers perform. Given that Kumble and Pathan are a certainty, it will be interesting to see who grabs the 2 bowling slots amongst Agarkar, Khan, RP and Bhajji.

Finally, my top 6 for the first test will be :
Sehwag
Gambhir/Jaffer (toughie!!)
Dravid
Tendulkar
VVS
Yuvraj (Ganguly on the bench, no brainer)

I was glad that the selectors decided to take Ganguly on tour instead of Mohammad Kaif who I personally think has a long was to go before staking a good claim in the classy Indian batting order. More on that later.....