Cricket selectors retain Ganguly for First Test against Sri Lanka

CHENNAI, India, Wednesday (Reuters) - Indian cricket selectors on Wednesday retained sacked captain Saurav Ganguly for the first test in next month's home series against Sri Lanka.

Ganguly had been the subject of intense speculation after he was sacked as one-day captain last month following a prolonged batting slump and a major row with coach Greg Chappell.

Rahul Dravid, who took over, was also appointed test captain on Tuesday after his fine start in the one-day role.

Chief selector Kiran More said on Wednesday that Ganguly, India's most successful test captain, had been chosen as a batting all rounder in the 15-player squad.

"He definitely has to prove himself in the coming series also," he told reporters.

Ganguly has taken only 25 wickets with his occasional seamers from 84 tests. More said he was included only after a lengthy debate among the five selectors.

The 33-year-old batsman had not made a test hundred since December 2003 until he scored a laboured 101 in the first match against Zimbabwe at Bulawayo in September, increasingly looking shaky against short-pitched deliveries.

Ganguly's international future had looked bleak after he was omitted from the one-day team which crushed Sri Lanka 6-1 at home this month, ending its string of poor results.

A five-match one-day series against South Africa is tied 1-1 with two games left.

The selectors also drafted in uncapped wicketkeeper Mahendra Dhoni, rewarding the stocky player for his brilliant contribution with the bat in recent one-dayers. Dhoni, 24, who replaced youngster Dinesh Karthik, hit 183 not out during the Sri Lanka series, the highest one-day score by a wicketkeeper. He scored 346 runs in four innings in that series.

"Dhoni has taken us to a different level of cricket altogether for one-dayers. He is a match-winner," More said.

They also picked uncapped 19-year-old paceman Rudra Pratap Singh after his promising start in one-dayers, leaving out senior fellow left-arm Zaheer Khan.

The test squad:

India :

Rahul Dravid (captain), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Vangipurappu Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Saurav Ganguly, Mohammad Kaif, Mahendra Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Anil Kumble, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Ajit Agarkar, Rudra Pratap Singh, Murali Kartik, Gautam Gambhir.

One-day :

Rahul Dravid (captain), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Mohammad Kaif, Mahendra Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, Jai Prakash Yadav, Harbhajan Singh, Ajit Agarkar, Rudra Pratap Singh, S.Sreesanth, Murali Kartik.