The national selectors are likely to pick a suitable replacement for injured off-spinner Harbhajan Singh when they meet at Kolkata on Monday to choose the Indian squad for the five match one-day series in Pakistan beginning on March 13.
With Harbhajan ruled out of the historic tour due to a niggling middle finger injury, the quintet in the selection panel have to finalise their choice from among a host of slow bowlers who have been doing well in the domestic tournaments.
Railways' Kulamani Parida, Ramesh Powar of Mumbai, Delhi off-spinner Sarandeep Singh, Sourasish Lahiri of Bengal and Sairaj Bahutule seem to have emerged as the likely contenders for the vacant slot.
However, there is a talk in the cricketing circles that the selectors may decide to go with just one spinner, and in that case veteran leggie Anil Kumble - who was in fine form on the recent Aussie tour - would be the obvious choice, provided he proves his fitness in time.
India would embark on the historic 40-day tour of the neighbouring nation on March 10 to play the one-day internationals followed by three Tests, the team for which would be announced later.
The one dayers would be played in Karachi (March 13), Rawalpindi (March 16), Peshawar (March 19) and Lahore (March 21 and 24).
It will be interesting to see whether the selectors continue to repose faith in wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel whose performance Down Under has caused quite a few frowns.
Though it looks certain that Rahul Dravid would again double up as wicket-keeper for the limited over matches, Patel and Ajay Ratra are likely to fight it out for a probable second stumper's slot.
With middle order batsman Mohammad Kaif, who missed the trip to Australia following an injury, already submitting a fitness certificate to the BCCI, the selectors also need to decide whether to include the Uttar Pradesh player or continue with Bengal's Rohan Gavaskar.
Rohan, sent to Australia as a replacement for Kaif, put up a decent show, hitting one half-century besides serving the side well with his off spin.
Another player who might miss the cut is Sanjay Bangar, whose performance Down Under was not really heart-warming.
In the bowling department, the inclusion of pacemen Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra would be a foregone conclusion once they submit the fitness certificates to the selection panel led by Syed Kirmani.
However, even if they are selected, both the pacers as also Kaif and Kumble would have to clear a fitness test ahead of the three-day conditioning camp at Kolkata from March 7 before they get the green signal for the series.
There also seems a good chance of the inclusion of young fast bowlers Irfan Pathan and Laxmipathy Balaji, who gave a good account of themselves in Australia and drew lavish praise from skipper Sourav Ganguly.
Finalising the batting line-up is likely to give the selectors the least headache, with all the big guns firing in Australia.
While skipper Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Dravid, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh select themselves, Hemang Badani also appears all set to make the cut.
