A woefully out-of-form Virender Sehwag, 27 runs in the last three innings, lost his place in the Indian team for the remaining two Tests against Australia.
The team, announced on Thursday, saw just this change from the squad that has won the first two Tests at Chennai and Hyderabad.
The National selectors decided not to name a replacement since this is a home series and the team has an opener-in-waiting in Shikhar Dhawan, yet to be capped in Test cricket.
The Delhi left-hander had shown superb form with the bat in the domestic season and, ironically, will replace his famed State partner.
Even though Ajinkya Rahane has opened for India in One-Day Internationals, he is being considered only for a middle-order berth in the longer version of the game.
The left-handed Dhawan is set to open at Mohali with Murali Vijay, who produced a quality century in the last Test, which India won by an innings and 135 runs.
Skipper’s backing
Much against wide-spread speculation, off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, not at his best and making a comeback to the Test arena, has managed to keep his place, thanks to an improved show in the second innings of the Chennai Test.
Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni had given indications in favour of Harbhajan when he said, “He bowled well in the second innings of the first Test and also here (Hyderabad). He is showing improvement.” This backing from the skipper did not go unnoticed when the selectors retained Harbhajan through a tele-conference.
Ishant Sharma, below his expected standards, has retained his place essentially because of lack of options.
Though his experience was a key factor, his ability to reverse swing clinched the argument in his favour. The team management was obviously pleased with his skills with the old ball.
The rest of the players picked themselves. The third Test will be played at Mohali from March 14 and the last at Delhi from March 22.
The team
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Shikhar Dhawan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ashoke Dinda, Harbhajan Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Pragyan Ojha and Ishant Sharma
he should be given change to play in middle order.. (remember he is a good spinner also)
One must feel for poor guy. He is such a maverick but woefully out of form. I hope he is back soon with a bang. Let him play down the order and see if that improves his form. I read in Harsha's column that Sehwag prefers batting down the order (at number 4 to be precise) - so why not allow him that luxury. We already have a good opening pair in Pujara and Murali.
@Jai Sharma, Sehwag paid the price for not adapting his technique to the age related slow down of his reflexes and for not taking physical fitness seriously.
Sehwag has been lacking runs for the last many innings and has been dropped.Rather curious head line - what does it mean? Paid the price for what?
I hoped Wasim Jaffer would replace Sehwag for the openers' slot, in the remaining tests; but that does not seem to be the case now. Jaffer has had a productive Ranji season in the recent past.
Dropping Viru from the next two test matches is a good decision of
Indian Selectors. It will open the root to the new upcoming players who
can show their potential.
Sehwag is a shadow of the cricketer he was once. His batting is declining, his fielding is atrocious, with some dropped catches and also his running and fitness is way short of a professional sportsman.
India need to be more professional in their fitness, skills and motivation if they want to compete with the best, both home and abroad.
murali vijay does not fit in in Indian squad as he scores one fifty/hundred and after that he fails to score runs in next 5 to 8 innings.as compare to murali selectors should choose some other batsman as a opener.as he the team mate of CSK in IPL may be thats why he is getting more chances as compare to other players who is not playing in same team.
It is rather unfortunate to show exit door to an aggressive player like
shewag though he is struggling at the moment. He should have been given
chances in the remaining tests to regain his confidence. No player can
match his performance when he fires all cylinders.
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