LONDON: The England selectors made two tough decisions on Friday morning when they left dancing Darren Gough and Vikram Solanki, the batsman born in Udaipur, out of the squads for the tour of India but, clearly stressed by their own hard thinking, could not bring themselves to name a third spinner.

They will choose between Monty Panesar, Ian Blackwell and Alex Louden soon but we have to ask if — whoever he turns out to be — his journey is really necessary.

The sight of Mushtaq Ahmed hovering around the Pakistan nets convinced England to take Shaun Udal to Multan, Faisalabad and Lahore earlier this winter to aid Ashley Giles, but now that Giles is fully fit once more is there any need for Udal and another helpmate? Especially as the three in contention are all imperfect cricketers.

Louden is not even a first team bowler at Warwickshire, Blackwell is overweight and ponderous and Panesar, for all his 46 wickets in eight matches last summer, is a poor fielder and even poorer batsman. He is a Sikh, born in England 23 years ago and an impressive slow left-arm bowler for Northamptonshire.

The tabloids have latched on to a few complimentary remarks made about him by David Graveney, chairman of the selectors, and already named Panesar Turbanator II and the Sikh with the Tweak but his wretched all round skills have no place in a 21st century Test side.

Three quickies

The selectors, who have little enough to add to the process by which Test teams are now built, would be better off searching for the right support fast bowler to ensure that when — inevitably — Simon Jones breaks down, the strong quick bowling department is not undermined.

I cannot help feeling that England is going to field three quick bowlers including Flintoff in the Tests with two spinners and that it may be a mistake when in Flintoff, Jones, Hoggard and Harmison they have such a strong pace attack. England has been persuaded to rely on spin once this winter and it should not expect that the Test pitches at Nagpur, Mohali and Mumbai will provide turn or the reverse swing that was so important against Australia.

The choice marks the end of Gough's career. He says he is old enough to accept being left out of the squad and that he understands the need for youth to have its fling and, at 36, he cannot have expected to continue much longer. The chat around the places where cricketers gather suggests that he has been left out because he told the selectors he had personal reasons for not wishing to tour Pakistan and then emerged as the winner of the BBC TV programme Strictly Come Dancing.

If they have sidelined him - as they did Alec Stewart when he preferred to have his elbow repaired rather than go on the last tour of India - because he did not come clean about the dancing programme, it shows that cricket's 19th century attitudes are still intact.

I suspect Graveney and Co, who kindly allowed Gough to stay on to guide the young bowlers towards World Cup 2007, are glad to have the excuse to leave him in England. Solanki has never batted as well for England as expected; mores the pity since he is a superb fielder and this side is not blessed with many fleet feet or safe hands.

The only other question to be resolved is whether Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff wants to return to England before the third Test for the birth of his second child. He has not yet put in a request but he is a devout family man and he may well feel his duty is to be at his wife's side. James Anderson, another under-performer since his blazing arrival in an England one-day international shirt, loses his place in the Test squad but will be part of the one-day squad.

Test squad: Michael Vaughan (captain), Marcus Trescothick, Andrew Strauss, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff, Geraint Jones, Matt Prior, Ashley Giles, Shaun Udal, Matthew Hoggard, Steve Harmison, Liam Plunkett, Simon Jones, Paul Collingwood.

One-day squad: Michael Vaughan, Marcus Trescothick, Andrew Strauss, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff, Paul Collingwood, Gertaint Jones, Matt Prior, Shaun Udal, Ian Blackwell, Ashley Giles, Simon Jones, Steve Harmison, Liam Plunkett, James Anderson, Kabir Ali.

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