Of the newcomers, Manjrekar's entry is perhaps the least contentious - with Navjot Sidhu claiming to be unfit for the ongoing Board President's game against South Africa, Ganguly still to recover from an injury sustained during the recent Titan Cup, W V Raman recovering from an operation and both Sujith Somasundar and Vikram Rathore proving woefully inadequate to make the transition to the highest grade, the selectors have opted for the experience of Manjrekar to fill the opening slot.
The interesting thing about the lineup is that a second opener does not figure in the list - indicating, perhaps, that skipper Tendulkar might either opt to open himself, or go with the experiment of Nayan Mongia as stop gap opener. It was tried, you will recall, during the one off Test against Australia earlier, and Mongia on that occasion came good with a fighting century.
If Manjrekar and Mongia are the openers, then the number three slot goes to Rahul Dravid - again, a choice totally free of contention, as Dravid in recent times has established himself as India's most reliable batsman, bar none.
Number four will in all probability go to Mohammad Azharuddin, unless he and skipper Sachin Tendulkar alternate places with Tendulkar coming at four followed by Azhar himself at five.
Assuming a six-batsmen composition to the side, young Hyderabad batsman V V S Laxman, who at the time of writing this was unbeaten on 17 in the second innings for Board President's XI against South Africa in the three day game at Baroda, will earn his Test cap.
Which brings the equation down to the five bowlers. Srinath, Prasad and Kumble are certainities. Joshi, in this lineup, will probably fill the all-rounders slot. And the fifth bowler, thus, narrows the choice to one of three: Johnson, Kapoor or Hirwani.
Johnson acquitted himself reasonably well on a dead Firozeshah Kotla wicket against the Aussies, and struck form again during the recent warm up game between Ranji champions Karnataka and South Africa earlier this week. Kapoor, meanwhile, bowled superbly in the one off Test versus the Aussies on a track taking turn. The choice, thus, becomes Johnson in case the Ahmedabad pitch is seen as seam friendly; or, as appears more likely, if the wicket is prepared to assist spin, then Kapoor gets the nod.
Which brings up a little mystery - what is Narendra Hirwani doing in the side?
What, to be more accurate, is Venkatapathy Raju doing out of it?
Each time he gets a look in, whether at the Test or one day level, Raju comes good with wickets, taken at an economical rate. And even as the national selectors were meeting to pick the Test side, Raju proved his ability yet again, taking six South African wickets in a superb spell of bowling for the Board President's XI for just 64 runs, to reduce the tourists to 206 all out in response to the home side's 179 all out in the first innings.
Barring an innings of 74 runs by Herschelle Gibbs, none of the South African batsmen played Raju with any degree of poise and certainity. And yet, it is Hirwani, not Raju, who is named in the squad - the national selectors, as always, moving in mysterious ways their wonders to perform.
One explanation for this myopia vis a vis Raju could be that the selectors didn't want to go with two left-arm spinners Joshi and Raju in tandem being seen as too much of a good thing.
The same argument prevailed, if you recall, when Bishen Singh Bedi was a fixture in the Indian side. Dilip Doshi had to wait till Bedi retired to get a look-in. So too did Padmakar Shivalkar, arguably the greatest Indian spinner never to play Test cricket.
Strangely enough, the selectors who were fixated against two left-arm spinners then didn't seem to mind having two right arm spinners operate in tandem - as in Prasanna-Venkatraghavan, or Prasanna-Chandrasekhar.
And today, the selectors appear to see no problem with having two right arm spinners in the side - as in Kumble and Kapoor. More, they have no problems with two right arm leg-spinners in the same side - as in Kumble and Hirwani. It is the left-arm spinner who, they believe, should come single spy, and not in batallions.
Strange.
Chairman of selectors Ramakant Desai told the media, after announcing the squad, that Manjrekar's choice was necessitated by Sidhu's unfitness. Earlier, added Desai, Manjrekar had strengthened his own case by submitting a written statement to the BCCI to the effect that if selected, he would have no objections to opening the innings.
Meanwhile, Desai said, the possibility of Laxman being asked to open could also not be ruled out.
The chairman of selectors indicated that Paras Mhambrey had been considered to fill one of the medium pace slots, but that his poor fielding had gone against him when it came down to the wire.
Indian captain Sachin Tendulkar, who was in Baroda on Friday to confer with the national selectors, meanwhile rushed back to Bombay to appear in a charity two-wicket tournament intended to raise funds for Bombay's Ruia College, and was not available for comment.