Time for reality in Indian selection policy

India's selection panel, aka the Chennai mafia, have no doubt been patting themselves on their collective backs and doing the metaphorical hi-five.

They are flush with a second 2-0 Test series success, this one is over wannabe heroes Bangladesh, that was expected anyway. It also means India remaining numero uno on the Test rankings. Hand out the cigars and break out the whisky.

Only instead of grooming batsmen for the future, and using the Test series across the east Bengal border with view to introducing new talent, Kris Srikkanth and his pals opted for the safety first valve. Now they face a Test series against South Africa and are looking for replacements for Rahul Dravid (The Wall) and Yuvraj (Mr Six Hit) Singh, chewing their cigars and ignoring the whisky to keep their minds clear.

Do they have the batsmen ready to step in at three and five to fill the places? And this against a resurgent South African bowling attack led by Dale Steyn and Morné Morkel, with a left-arm fast bowler called Wayne Parnell (not Pernell as someone spluttered incoherently the other day) and soon to edify certain Indian audiences with his clever change of pace.

There is another left-arm fast bowler as well in Lonwabo Tsotsobe, the man seen as Makhaya Ntini's replacement in the South African ranks. This is the one overlooked by Michael Atherton, fumbling around with his blinkers and unable to find one of several black African future stars because he hasn't done his homework before his recent blundering into the realms of misguided sophistic journalism.

While it is known that former coach Mickey Arthur, one of several South Africa's latest casualties of what has been a forlorn summer, and the captain Graeme Smith, wanted Charl Langeveldt, the lanky Tsotsobe is known to be one for the future.