‘Sehwag was to replace MSD as captain’
Virender Sehwag;
At a time when Team India is facing flak from all quarters for a string of losses at home, non-performance of seniors and the wishy-washy captaincy of M.S. Dhoni, Virender Sehwag’s former coach dropped a bombshell and said that the previous BCCI selection committee, headed by K. Srikkanth, wanted Sehwag to replace Dhoni as captain but he was instead dropped by the new committee.
While the new selectors are obviously of the opinion that it’s better to back MSD and keep him in good humour (an example being the Man of the Match trophy in the last ODI against Pakistan), Sehwag’s childhood coach A.N. Sharma said from Delhi on Tuesday, “Today Sehwag is not in the team because the new selectors, Sandeep Patil (West Zone), Roger Binny (South), Vikram Rathore (North), Saba Karim (East) and Rajinder Hans (Central), wanted to protect M.S. Dhoni, on the BCCI president’s (N. Sreenivasan) advice”.
A distraught Sharma adds, “Sehwag plays for the team and not for individual records. He loses his wicket under pressure when other top batsmen fail. I don’t think he has any attitude problem. Sehwag speaks very little and does not give advice unless asked for.”
He further asks, “Delhi was Sehwag’s home ground… why was he dropped there and that too against the strong Pakistani team against whom he has scored heavily in the past?”
“Gautam Gambhir and Rohit Sharma have scored less runs than Sehwag. Why are they in the team? If they being younger than Sehwag is the reason, why aren’t other young players invited to play for India?” fumes Sharma, adding, “There is no merit in this theory.”
Sharma, who had coached Sehwag since he was in Class X, however, is not sure whether the relationship between Sehwag and Dhoni has worsened, but it had certainly reached a nadir during India’s last tour of Australia when the two took potshots at each other. “I have been meeting Sehwag regularly and will certainly speak to him on the issue,” he adds.
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