Deep Dasgupta is better at keeping his place is the side than keeping behindthe stumps. Despite another woeful performance with the gloves, Dasgupta has been retained for the second Test against Zimbabwe at Delhi, starting on February 28, presumably on the strength of his batting.

"We did not want to disturb the combination, as the boys are doing very good," said chairman of the Indian selection committee Chandu Borde, on the penultimate day of the first Test, in Nagpur.

Borde agreed that the Dasgupta's performance behind the stumps was a matter of concern while saying that there had been some improvements. Dasgupta dropped three catches in the match, including chances from Andy Flower and Alistair Campbell. India were fortunate that these lapses didn't prove costly, with both batsmen failing to capitalise on the reprieves.

"I have spoken to the coach, the captain and a few senior player and all of them have noticed a slight improvement," Borde said before attributing Dasgupta's selection, in customary fashion, to "a committee decision."

The matter of Sourav Ganguly's fitness cropped up too. Just before the Nagpur Test started, newspapers had quoted Indian team physio Andrew Leipus as describing the Indian captain as a "shirker" in his report to the BCCI and though it was later denied by Leipus, Ganguly's performance on the field at Nagpur inspired anything but despondency.

BCCI secretary and convenor of the selection committee Niranjan Shah took it upon himself to answer this one. "Ganguly's fitness was not discussed at all", he said. "If if there were any problems the team physio would have told us about it. Ganguly is not a 100m athlete, but a cricketer fit to play."

The committee ignored another important area of concern a regular opening pair. Asked why Gautam Gambhir, who also scored a double hundred against Zimbabwe playing for Board President¹s XI was not included for the second Test, Borde said that no member of the selection panel was present during the game in Vijaywada. "We can't judge the player from watching on the TV."

India (from) Sourav Ganguly (capt), SS Das, Deep Dasgupta, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Sanjay Bangar, Virendar Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Harbhajan Singh, Sarandeep Singh, Tinu Yohannan.

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