Commenting on the dropping of dashing India opener Virender Sehwag, former captain Sourav Ganguly reportedly told a Bengali television channel on Saturday that current team skipper MS Dhoni had a hand in the exclusion. Describing Sehwag as one of the all-time Test cricket greats, Ganguly said Team India will miss his presence.
“He has completely changed the grammar of Test match opening. The sheer number of runs and the manner in which he has scored them, India will miss his presence. His impact in the game is comparable only to greats like Sachin, (Rahul) Dravid and (Sunil) Gavaskar,” he said.
Mr. Saurav Ganguly may be enamored like all cricket fans, of Sehwag’s free and attacking batting skills, which has been instrumental in many occasions in denting the rhythms of opponents’s bowlers and making runs at great speed. But, in the last approx. 14 or 16 innings, his performance is very disappointing and he does not deserve the place in the team just for his past laurels.
The captain of the team should have a say in the selection of final eleven who will play for India, but that does not mean that a forward looking and result-oriented skipper would prefer to play an active and younger cricketer if a proven horse is faltering in every inning. How many chances he can give to a hero of the past! Had Sehwag been delivering even 50% of his potential then no body could have dared to even think of dropping him from the national team.
It is absolutely wrong to say that Dhoni is instrumental in dropping the ex- batting maestro Virender Sehwag; on the contrary he has been left aside for his non-performance. If he is really interested to come back in the team, then he will have to work hard in domestic matches and county cricket otherwise it will be curtains for Sehwag as he is already 34.
