diff --git a/scrapy/shell.py b/scrapy/shell.py
index 03024af4c..323f55f8d 100644
--- a/scrapy/shell.py
+++ b/scrapy/shell.py
@@ -6,13 +6,14 @@ See documentation in docs/topics/shell.rst
 from __future__ import print_function
 
 import signal
+import warnings
 
 from twisted.internet import reactor, threads, defer
 from twisted.python import threadable
 from w3lib.url import any_to_uri
 
 from scrapy.crawler import Crawler
-from scrapy.exceptions import IgnoreRequest
+from scrapy.exceptions import IgnoreRequest, ScrapyDeprecationWarning
 from scrapy.http import Request, Response
 from scrapy.item import BaseItem
 from scrapy.settings import Settings
@@ -98,6 +99,7 @@ class Shell(object):
         self.vars['spider'] = spider
         self.vars['request'] = request
         self.vars['response'] = response
+        self.vars['sel'] = _SelectorProxy(response)
         if self.inthread:
             self.vars['fetch'] = self.fetch
         self.vars['view'] = open_in_browser
@@ -155,3 +157,15 @@ def _request_deferred(request):
 
     request.callback, request.errback = d.callback, d.errback
     return d
+
+
+class _SelectorProxy(object):
+
+    def __init__(self, response):
+        self._proxiedresponse = response
+
+    def __getattr__(self, name):
+        warnings.warn('"sel" shortcut is deprecated. Use "response.xpath()", '
+                      '"response.css()" or "response.selector" instead',
+                      category=ScrapyDeprecationWarning, stacklevel=2)
+        return getattr(self._proxiedresponse.selector, name)