Ganguly will find a place in the 15 thanks to all the polictics involved in team selection. (Btw, Yuvraj needlessly raked up the issue again with his needless comments)
With both Dhoni and Pathan proving to be quite capable with the bat I think India must go into the first Test against England with an attacking bowling combination. One could argue that it was India’s batting failure that resulted in the third test defeat against Pak. But unless the groundsmen can gurantee a turning track, I would opt for five bowlers instead of four.
My playing eleven for the first Test would be as follows:
Sehwag
Gambhir
Dravid
Sachin
VVS
Dhoni
Pathan
Kumble
Bhajji
Sreesanth
RP Singh
If a turning track can be more or less guranteed, then it might be ok to drop a seamer for a batsmam (Mohd Kaif).
Pakora Korner 
Ok, i’ll give you your Sreesanth over my Balaji. And I’ll agree with going in with five bowlers. That’s definitely the right move. However, Jaffer should be opening instead of Gambhir. He’s the man in form. I would actually take 3 spinners (Murali Karthik) and 2 pacers (Pathan and Balaji/Sreesanth). Prasad
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Balaji is injured. He is not even playing Ranji trophy. Otherwise I would pick him any day esp. for Test cricket. Jaffer is good choice except for the fact that he has scored a lot of his runs batting at number 3 and 4 for Bombay.He might be a better bet, but Gambhir needs another chance before he is dumped. Btw, I think Gambhir will be out to the hook shot against Harmison! š
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