The team selection was pretty interesting for multiple reasons. For one, it clearly validated the buzz that has been growing increasingly loud in the recent days, that there is no talent good enough in the domestic circuit to break in into the national team.
Ganguly, I felt, made a comeback into the team purely on the basis of his experience, rather than any good performances in the domestic circuit (except one hundred recently, he had been having a rather poor run in both domestic matches and previously in the county circuit, where ironically Dinesh Mongia was prolific); which validates the "no young talent available" theory further. While whether he makes a significant difference to the team remains to be seen, but you can be rest assured that the media will have plenty of material over the next few weeks to drum up ratings (e.g. Headlines like "Greg raised his eyebrows at Ganguly", "Dada & Dravid seen in animated conversation in the mens room" etc).
I see his selection as a purely pragmatic move based on the current situation and the lack of domestic talent, and hopefully it will settle the Ganguly soap opera once and for all. If he performs, he deserves to be in the side; if he doesn't, unlikely that the question will ever be raised again.

Based purely on performance, Raina, Pathan, Sehwag and Mongia needed to be dropped, that Sehwag survived is to me a miracle. The only arguments one could make for Pathan surviving was either the long-term view ("young prospect with potential") that could've been applied to Raina as well, or the all-rounder theory, which doesn't quite wash given that the requirement for an all-rounder in test matches is somewhat lesser, than in ODIs . The case of Mohd. Kaif is the strangest one, and I suspect the ambivalence I have towards him is shared by other folks too. He does not seem to have enough talent to force his way into the side, yet you could not ask for a more complete team player. Take the case of how he was handled: Prior to the WI tour, he was having a horrendous run, and he should not have made it to the team for the tour. Yet, they showed faith in him, he went along, scored 3 fifties in 5 ODIs, and made a century and a fifty in the three tests that followed. Next thing that happens is that he is dropped in the first Malaysia match to make room for Tendulkar (in the chances he subsequently got he did no worse than the other stars in the team); and now in the first test series after that WI tour where he performed so much better than others in the test matches, he has been dropped again. Hell, they seem to prefer to include Dinesh Kartik in the team as a batsman over Kaif, as seen in the 20/20 match.
I, for one, was hoping Aakash Chopra made it back. His sticky style of technically correct batting and holding one end up would have been very useful in the current situation, where we barely seem to get a decent start. Gambhir, though, is a fair call given his domestic performance (though he might have to cut down on the risks he normally takes to be successful).