It's a happy time to be a part of Team India, but not if your name is Virender Sehwag. The veteran opener has had a torrid time with the bat, his contribution in the first two Tests against Australia being 27 runs in three innings.
It’s a happy time to be a part of Team India, but not if your name is Virender Sehwag. The veteran opener has had a torrid time with the bat, his contribution in the first two Tests against Australia being 27 runs in three innings.
A source in the cricket establishment, however, told this paper, that Sehwag may escape the axe. Sandeep Patil and his selection committee colleagues were slated to meet on Wednesday, but given that the second Test was completed a day earlier, they are unlikely to have a formal sit-down. It is also learnt that they will announce an unchanged squad for the last two Tests.
Sehwag should consider himself lucky because he hasn’t done much of note since his 117 in the first Test against England at Ahmedabad last November. Equally worrying is the fact that he has never looked like scoring runs. He was unlucky to get bowled by James Pattinson in the first innings of the Chennai Test, but was caught at first slip off Nathan Lyon, the off-spinner, in the second when India were chasing a paltry 50-run target.
Sehwag didn’t look comfortable in Hyderabad either, edging Peter Siddle to the wicketkeeper for a 19-ball six. M Vijay, who replaced Gautam Gambhir, made up for his twin failures in Chennai, by scoring a career-best 167 in the second Test. Remember left-hander Shikhar Dhawan, also from Delhi, is in the squad on the back of a stellar domestic season.
MS Dhoni gave little away when asked on Sehwag’s chances. “That’s a difficult one. We have a selection meeting, I don’t want to comment. We don’t have too many Tests and we travel to South Africa later this year,” he said. In other words, India don’t want to expose a youngster to alien conditions without giving him enough chances at home. For the record, Dhoni & Co are not scheduled to play any more Tests — home or away — before the tour of South Africa.
The selectors could also look to draft in Jiwanjot Singh, of Punjab, the right-hander topping the Ranji Trophy charts with 995 runs this season. Wasim Jaffer is another deserving candidate, but the age factor seems to have gone against the Mumbai ace who is now 35.
But it seems the men who matter are on Sehwag’s side.
@DAbrahamm
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