The selectors were to have chosen the 16-man touring party on December 5, but with Zaheer Khan, Rudra Pratap Singh and Munaf Patel all unavailable for the Bangalore Test, they instead plumped for 24 probables and chose to leave it till Wednesday to pick the squad to depart for Melbourne on Monday.
Dilip Vengsarkar's unit will have to think long and hard on no more than a couple of issues. One of them could involve the size of the party; there is some talk that 17 players might fly out instead of the conventional 16.
The other involves the fitness of Patel, seemingly a perennial problem.
Neither Zaheer and RP Singh's injuries are serious enough to spark availability doubts. Patel's, of course, is a different matter altogether. The Maharashtra paceman has piled up an endless list of injuries in his relatively short international career.
The 24-year-old has stayed with the team despite being ruled out of the on-going Test, physio John Gloster monitoring his prog-ress. A call is expected to be taken on Wednesday morning as regards Patel's readiness for international cricket. It's in the event of the pacer failing the fitness test that other options will be considered.
It is more or less certain that there will be three openers -- including the second stumper -- in addition to the five-man middle-order pack, number one 'keeper-bat in Mahendra Singh Dhoni, five pace bowlers and two spinners, with the proviso for a third spinner.
Despite his twin failures in Bangalore, Gautam Gambhir is almost certain to keep his place alongside Wasim Jaffer, and ahead of Akash Chopra. Parthiv Patel might fancy his chances as the extra opener as well as the number two wicket-keeper, but Anil Kumble has shown great faith in Dinesh Kaarthick.
On the face of it, Kaarthick had an ordinary time behind the stumps at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. The 35 byes he conceded should, however, be considered in the context of the surface and wayward bowling. This series excluded, the Tamil Nadu youngster has been a key component of the Test eleven -- overseas -- and that might yet tilt the scales in his favour.
It's difficult to look beyond Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman and Yuvraj Singh for the five middle-order slots, particularly with no one so much as pushing them and all five in middling to exceptional touch. The core group is the same that did so brilliantly well Down Under four years back. Australia will be aware of this group's potential for damage.
Kumble's spin partner will be Harbhajan Singh, of that there is little doubt. It is unlikely that a third spinner will make the cut, what with five pacers a must in the 16-man squad.
And so on to the pacers. A fit-again Zaheer and RP Singh will link up with the rejuvenated Irfan Pathan to form the left-handed triumvirate. Pathan didn't set the world alight with the ball in his comeback Test, but did enough to suggest that he has shed his wanton ways of the recent past. His batting is an additional string to the bow.
With S Sreesanth ruled out, Ishant Sharma sealed his place with Tuesday's five-for, leaving one slot open. That will go to Patel if he is declared fit. Otherwise, Vikram Rajvir Singh will come into contention, even if experience and past successes in Australia of Ajit Agarkar and the promise of Rajasthan's Pankaj Singh are discussed at length.
Patel, it must be remembered, returned midway through the last two overseas Test tours that he was part of -- South Africa, and later Bangladesh. The selectors will have to make doubly sure that he is nothing short of hundred percent fit to avoid another early return home for the fragile paceman.