The announcement of the squad for the tri-series, and the absence from it of Sourav Ganguly in particular, has been the talking point over the last day and a half. The former skipper, now 35, might just have played his last one-dayer for the country, though the Kolkatan has shown his resilience and the ability to bounce back so often that it will be foolhardy to write him off.

Ganguly has had a decent time of it in the shorter version too since his comeback to the national squad some 13 months back. Saying that, his strike rate hasn't been as high as it was before he was left out of the team some two and a quarter years back, and with the passage of time, he has slowed down on the park as well fairly considerably. The bigger grounds in Australia will be unforgiving on anyone less than a hundred percent fit; that, coupled with the desire to give youth its due with a view to building a good one-day unit for the future, was what kept Ganguly and Rahul Dravid out of the one-day scheme of things.

Assistant coach Lalchand Rajput, however, was emphatic in stating that the team wouldn't be distracted by the naming of the one-day squad, and the absence from it of the experienced batting trio of Ganguly, Dravid and VVS Laxman. "We are just concentrating on the fourth Test," Rajput said on Monday night, a little after the team flew in from Perth. "It is a very, very important match, and everyone is focussed only on the Test.

"They are also professional cricketers, and they know what it takes to be in international cricket. We have been in similar situations before, and in a worse situation after the Sydney Test. We did very well to come back strongly in Perth. It is important to focus on the cricket, and not think of things apart from cricket."

The Indians, Rajput said, had a team cycling session in Perth in the morning before emplaning for Adelaide. "We have got to believe in ourselves, which we did in Perth. We were motivated after whatever happened in Sydney, that was the biggest part of the team coming together. We need to carry that momentum into this Test.”