The national cricket selectors will meet in Mumbai on Tuesday to choose a new Indian captain following Rahul Dravid's surprise resignation amid speculation that Sachin Tendulkar could be offered the high-pressure job.
The five selectors, with former captain Dilip Vengsarkar at the helm, have been put on the horns of a huge dilemma on whether to move forward or set the clock back by handing back the job to Tendulkar for a third stint.
The squad for the first three ODIs in the best-of-seven home series against Australia, beginning later this month, is also to be announced.
The 34-year-old Tendulkar, who would have been the ideal candidate a few years ago, had recently admitted that the one-dayers were taking a toll on his body. He opted out of the ongoing Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa along with Dravid and another ex-skipper Sourav Ganguly.
Selectors will have to think how much additional mental stress the champion batsman can withstand if he is made the captain for both the ODIs against Australia and the subsequent full series against Pakistan, not to forget the tough and energy-sapping visit Down Under to follow.
The Mumbai batsman in a recent interview to a British daily talked about the difficulties he faced of late in playing back-to-back ODIs with a short gap.
The series against Australia would see the players of both the teams battling it out in hot and humid conditions by crisscrossing across the length and breadth of the country.
Tendulkar's previous record as captain, four wins out of 25 in Tests and 23 out of 73 ODIs, has not been very encouraging, but the selectors could still turn to him to tide over the leadership crisis.
If the selectors, in their collective wisdom, feel that the burden of ODI captaincy need not be thrust on the champion batsman at the twilight of his career, then they have the option of taking the unprecedented step of splitting the job and offering the limited overs leadership mantle to wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Dhoni is the logical candidate for the ODI job if the selectors decide to break the high-profile task into two, though there are some other claimants like Ganguly to fall back as a stop-gap arrangement.
Dhoni's elevation cannot be questioned despite the fact that he made his debut only three seasons ago in a spectacular manner against arch-foes Pakistan as he has been appointed the T20 captain over the likes of seniors Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh.
BCCI sources have said that president Sharad Pawar and Vengsarkar had got a word with Tendulkar on the sidelines of its function last week in Delhi.
Whether the BCCI duo asked Tendulkar about his readiness to take over the mantle of captaincy immediately or at a time later, when Pakistan arrive, is not clear at the moment.
Other names like V V S Laxman have also been swirling around for the Test captaincy with the Hyderabad batsman's name being suggested by former Australian captain Ian Chappell.
The matter of choosing the captain has, in fact, pushed to the background even the likely return of the axed trio of Sehwag, Irfan Pathan and Harbhajan for the ODIs at the cost of Dinesh Karthik, who has flattered to deceive after his glorious run in the Test series in England, Ajit Agarkar and the portly Ramesh Powar.
Both Agarkar and Powar could face the boot especially as Vengsarkar has said in his interview that both were not performing with the bat.
Rohit Sharma is another candidate who faces the chop without having had a decent run and could give way to youngsters like the fit-again Suresh Raina, an outstanding fielder in the ring, or Manoj Tiwary both of whom have returned to competitive cricket after long injury lay-offs due to knee and shoulder injuries respectively.
But the focus of the meeting would be the selection of the man who is to replace Dravid at the helm.
