Gautam Gambhir has only himself to blame

If he is honest with himself, Gautam Gambhir will acknowledge that he has no one but himself to blame for his current predicament.

Gambhir was the sole big-name casualty as India's selectors met on Sunday (February 10) to pick a 15-man squad for the first two of four Tests against Australia over the next month and a half. Considering it is India's first Test assignment since the embarrassing 1-2 loss to England at home and their last before embarking on a difficult tour of South Africa in November, Sandeep Patil and his fellow selectors had to be seen to be making some tough calls. The obvious victim was Gambhir.

His Test form over the last three years, and his limited-overs performances in the eight One-Day Internationals against Pakistan and England between December 25, 2012 and January 27, 2013, both went against Gambhir. Still only 31 and definitely far from finished with Indian cricket, Gambhir's last Test hundred came on January 20, 2010 against Bangladesh in Chittagong. It's been 26 Tests since, and during that period, he has made just over 1300 runs with only nine half-centuries.

Including that hundred in Chittagong, Gambhir averages 31.91 in his last 27 Tests, and while he did show signs of coming into some sort of form against England with successive scores of 65, 60, 40 and 37 in his last four Test innings, Patil's panel decided in its collective wisdom that it was time to look elsewhere.

That Gambhir made only 161 runs in eight ODIs against Pakistan and England, with one half-century, didn't help his cause either. Quite evidently, the selectors believe he still has plenty to offer Indian cricket. They have named him in the India A team to play the Australians in a first-class game in Chennai from February 16. By also entrusting him with the captaincy of the side, they have sent out the clear message that they feel he is very much in the mix. It is now entirely up to Gambhir, who has spent a majority of his cricketing career fighting demons real and imagined, to show that he has what it takes to fight his way back.

Interestingly, the man Gambhir has replaced in the India A squad is the one who has taken his place in the senior Indian squad. Shikhar Dhawan will feel his consistency in domestic cricket has been rewarded. Dhawan, 27, is also a left-hand opening batsman from Delhi, and has scored three hundreds in his last seven representative matches, including a limited-overs century against the Englishmen in December. Whether he has what it takes to succeed at the Test level remains to be seen, considering it is uncharted territory so far as he is concerned.

It is more than likely that M Vijay will be the first-choice opening partner for Virender Sehwag. Vijay's has been a chequered career, both domestically and internationally. The promise he showed as a last-minute replacement for Gambhir on Test debut against Australia in Nagpur in 2008 has gone largely unfulfilled. He averages a frugal 30.45 in 12 Tests, but his only hundred, 139, came against Australia at Bangalore in 2010. His domestic season for Tamil Nadu has been extremely ordinary, to put it mildly, but he sandwiched a poor Ranji Trophy campaign with a big double-hundred and a century in the two Irani Cups this season, thereby keeping his place in the squad and making himself the front-runner to open with Sehwag.

By leaving out Gambhir, the selectors have shown that they are willing to crack the whip, which means Sehwag too would be looking over his shoulder were he so temperamentally inclined. Despite his century in the opening Test against England in Ahmedabad, Sehwag has also been in the wars; perhaps the axing of his good friend is just the wake-up call that will shake him out of his reverie.

The temptation to return to Wasim Jaffer, the 34-year-old opener from Mumbai, must have been immense. Jaffer played the last of his 31 Tests nearly five years back but has been in outstanding form this season with four hundreds and seven fifties in his last 11 first-class games. By steering clear of Jaffer, the selectors have shown their hand and indicated that they are looking forward, not backward, at least when it comes to the opening slot.

The same isn't the case with the third spinner's position. Harbhajan Singh makes a comeback after having been unceremoniously dumped following the Mumbai Test against England, this despite he not having done anything of note on the domestic circuit. With R Ashwin's recent international form less than threatening and Harbhajan having tasted tremendous success against Australia in the past, Harbhajan will fancy his chances of playing his 100th Test during this series, though whether it comes as early as in the first Test in Chennai - interestingly, Ashwin's home ground - is open to question.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar's inclusion as one of three medium or fast-medium bowlers is a bit of a surprise. Admittedly, he had wonderful limited-overs outings against both Pakistan and England, but he is overly reliant on swing and isn't quick enough to make capital of conditions, if they so exist, assisting reverse swing. Shami Ahmed would perhaps have been a more prudent choice, as Mahendra Singh Dhoni indicated last month in Dharamsala, alongside Ishant Sharma and Ashok Dinda. With Zaheer Khan and Umesh Yadav both unavailable injured, India's new-ball resources appear extremely stretched. Perhaps, the aggression of S Sreesanth would not have been unwelcome, but having missed most of the domestic season through injury, the selectors perhaps felt he needed more domestic game-time.

Ravindra Jadeja keeping his spot in the 15 isn't such a big surprise, not after he made giant strides towards showing that he belonged at the international level during the one-dayers in the last month and a half. Whether he is equipped enough to bat at No. 6 in a Test match is another matter altogether. The team composition will decide which of Jadeja or Ajinkya Rahane will occupy that position, though common sense would dictate that it's a no-brainer, and that Rahane must be the obvious choice. Again and again.